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A punishing 54.4 kilometres greets the riders for the men’s individual time trial at the Rio Olympics with Tour de France winner Chris Froome going in as favourite. Join The Roar for live coverage from 11pm (AEST).
The course is the same one that was used at the finish of the road race, meaning the climbs of Grumari and Grota Funda are there, and while they are short, they are both steep.
Given the men will complete two laps, it adds to the climbing and general burn on the legs.
The Grumari comes in at an average of 9.4 per cent, while the Funda is almost seven per cent, with the maximum on either climb exceeding 17 per cent.
While the field is littered with pure time trialists, the favourite is undoubtedly Froome. He has proven time and time again that he knows how to handle himself in the individual discipline, and going uphill is his forte.
The challenge will be led by Fabian Cancellara and Tony Martin, both of whom are out and out time trialists and could lose time on the climbs. The biggest point for them to take into account is that the climbs aren’t all that long so if they can minimise their losses, there is still a chance there.
Australia’s Rohan Dennis also has to be taken into consideration – he has won an individual time trial at the Tour de France, the national time trial championships and held the world hour record.
Other favourites include reigning time trial champion Vasil Kiryienka, Nelson Oliveira, Taylor Phinney and Tom Dumoulin, although he is coming off a broken wrist at the Tour.
There is a chance of rain, which could make things scary given the amount of steep descending and tight corners, which saw plenty of crashes during the road races.
Unlike the women’s race, the men’s offers 40 places to competitors – with crashes and withdrawals for Richie Porte, Vincenzo Nibali and Wout Poels this has seen a reduction to 37 though. Because it is two laps of the same circuit there will be a gap in riders setting off about halfway so each rider on course is on the same lap.
Prediction
How can you go past Froome? He has the motor, the time trialing ability and the will to push himself through this course faster than anyone else. As long as he has pulled up from his exploits over the last month ok, no one will beat him.
Be sure to join The Roar for live coverage of the Olympic men’s individual time trial from 11pm (AEST) and don’t forget you can get involved by dropping a comment below.
Follow Scott on Twitter @sk_pryde