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.
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Scott Pryde
Expert
Thanks for joining me this evening and into the morning for The Roar's live coverage of both the men's and women's individual time trials at the 2016 Rio Olympics as Fabian Cancellara claimed a gold medal before retirement. Hopefully you enjoyed the coverage. I'll be around from 8am (AEST) this morning for live coverage of the Australian Boomers match against the USA. Before then, Connor Bennett will be live with Rugby 7's. Bye for now.
Scott Pryde
Expert
RESULTS Fabian Cancellara has completed a famous victory in the individual time trial at the 2016 Rio Olympics Games, going into retirement at the end of the year with another gold medal. It was far from one was traffic though, with Rohan Dennis causing problems on the timesheet early on before he suffered a bike change and lost big time, dropping out of the medals. Regardless, it looked like he would have been caught by Cancellara anyway who took no prisoners during the third sector turning a 20 second deficit to Dennis into a 20 second advantage. Tom Dumoulin and Chris Froome both started slowly but picked up their effort well to take the silver and bronze medals respectively. 1. Fabian Cancellara (Switzerland) - 1:12:15.42 2. Tom Dumoulin (Netherlands) - 1:13:02.83 3. Jonathan Castroviejo Nicolas (Spain) - 1:13:21.50 4. Rohan Dennis (Australia) - 1:13:25.66 5. Maciej Bodnar (Poland) - 1:14:05.89 6. Nelson Oliveira (Portugal) - 1:14:15.27 7. Jon Izaguirre Insausti (Spain) - 1:14:21 8. Geraint Thomas (Great Britain) - 1:14:52 9. Primoz Roglic (Slovenia) - 1:14:55 10. Leopold Konig (Czech Republic) - 1:15:23
Scott Pryde
Expert
Full results to come in just a moment.
Scott Pryde
Expert
You really have to feel for Rohan Dennis as well - he was the early leader, but a bike change cost him some time and he just never got his rhythm back dropping time to Cancellara in a big way towards the end.
Scott Pryde
Expert
Not a bad effort from Froome either but he just took a while to get going and left himself too much work to do in the back end of the race.
Scott Pryde
Expert
Well this is just a success story like no other. Spartacus, Fabian Cancellara goes into retirement with a gold medal. He is incredibly emotional. Dumoulin looks pretty emotional as well and given he had a broken wrist a couple of weeks ago, it's not unexpected.
Scott Pryde
Expert
So, Froome's time won't be good enough to get the win - Cancellara is just too good - but he will be still hoping to slot into the bronze medal position. Froome sprints all the way to the line and stops the clock 1:02 behind and he will have a bronze medal.
Scott Pryde
Expert
Dumoulin over 40 seconds down but he still takes the silver medal and that is a monumental effort from the Dutch rider given he broke his wrist only a month ago.
Scott Pryde
Expert
Tony Martin only just scraping into the provisional top 10. He will be straight out when Dumoulin and Froome come up.
Scott Pryde
Expert
Disappointing effort from Phinney today and he crosses the finish line over 5 minutes down - had forgotten about him still being on course.
Scott Pryde
Expert
Froome is being GPS tracked about 52 seconds back from Cancellara.
Scott Pryde
Expert
Dumoulin and Froome the only ones left on course along with Tony Martin, but he is over a minute down at last count and you shoud probably rule him off your contenders list -. Dennis holding a Bronze medal, but one of these two left on course could to the job and take it off him.
Scott Pryde
Expert
Surely no one will beat Cancellara from here. He is going to push all the way up to the line ad stop the clock over a minute to the good! What a ride from the Swiss master.
Scott Pryde
Expert
Hard to see anyone beating Cancellara right at the moment who to sum it all up looks incredibly strong.
Scott Pryde
Expert
Looks like the bike change really has cost Dennis today and he comes home well off the time of Castroveio who is currently leading down at the finish.
Scott Pryde
Expert
Chris Froome has knocked Dennis out of the medals for now.
Scott Pryde
Expert
Chris Froome the fnal man to hit the time check and he will aim at the time of Dennis in third place. At the finish line and Nelson Oliveira has put in a brilliant performance stopping the clock in third position.
Scott Pryde
Expert
Dumoulin has now gone into second place with a big effort, knocking Dennis back to third position.
Scott Pryde
Expert
Tony Martin looks a little laboured here as he shifts from left to right and back again. Shoulders rolling and there is no way back for him now at 2:44 down with 10km to go.
Scott Pryde
Expert
Through the final time check and Cancellara is now upwards of 50 seconds ahead on Dennis. The Swiss master is looking the goods here.