It was like a surreal signal from the heavens: Remco Evenepoel raced across the finish line on the Pont Alexandre III in Paris, dripping wet and at hellish speed as the last starter in the Olympic time trial at 6 pm sharp with the best time, clenched his fist as the new Olympic champion - and the rain stopped. Suddenly and permanently. A rain that had started 25 hours earlier, almost drowned the Olympic opening ceremony, and because of which, for example, the skateboard competition on the Place de la Concorde on Saturday had to be postponed by a day. Far too dangerous on the wet surface.
2024 Olympics: Many crashes in the time trial
Of course, it was also dangerous on the bike. There were a lot of crashes in the two time trials, hardly anyone got through without one. But postponing was never an issue. According to the UCI, cyclists have to be able to cope with this, as absurd as it is. Legions of developers and trainers work on the technology in the background, tinkering with air pressure and seat positions for maximum speed. And then the protagonists have to slow down. Evenepoel and Co. had the opportunity to try out the course days before, but it was dry then. Belgian time trial world champion Evenepoel's comment on the flat course with several roundabouts and a number of sharp changes of direction: "Shit roads." This should be doubly true in the rain.
New and remarkable: women and men rode the same route and the same distance. Exactly 32.4 kilometres, from the Invalides past many Parisian sights, including the Velodrome Jacques-Anquetil, who in his day rode with a cap instead of an aero helmet. It was remarkable how many of the 69 men and women were wearing the new, expansive helmet models à la New York fire brigade. Not the fastest, however.
Grace Brown, 32 years old and four-time Australian time trial champion, was the Olympic sensation in the saddle. The runner-up in the 2022 time trial world championships raced at an average speed of 49.05 km/h over the "slippery slope", as Germany's Antonia Niedermaier described the course. Brown was 1:31 minutes faster than silver medallist Anna Henderson from England - a world apart. She was followed a second later by Chloe Dygert (USA), the big favourite in third place. In the men's race, Brown would have finished 24th in the same time as Jan Tratnik from Slovenia.
13th and 15th place for German women
Brown also managed to steer through the rain in Paris without crashing. The second German starter Mieke Kröger did too, but the Olympic track champion from Tokyo was "very slow in the bends, which threw me off my rhythm." It was still enough for 13th place, Antonia Niedermaier finished 15th after a fall. Both had planned more.
For the only German participant, Maximilian Schachmann, the top eight was the goal; the professional from Andorra finished ninth. Nevertheless, he was satisfied. According to Wattmesser, it was "the best performance of my career", he said. He "honestly didn't know" whether he had risked too little on the soapy surface. It probably wouldn't have been enough for a medal either way, Schachmann was more than a minute short of bronze from Belgian Wout van Aert. But only three seconds off the eighth place he was aiming for. Switzerland's Stefan Küng ended up there.
Results of the Olympic time trials
Women
- Grace Brown, (AUS), 39:38 min, (49.05 km/h)
- Anna Henderson, (GBR), +1:31
- Chloe Dygert, (USA), +1:32
- Juliette Labous, (FRA), +1:41
- Demi Vollering, (NED), +1:51
- Lotte Kopecky, (BEL), +1:56
- Kim Cadzow, (NZL), +2:08
- Elisa Longo Borghini,(ITA), +2:11
- Audrey Cordon-Ragot, (FRA), +2:13
- Christina Schweinberger, (AUT), +2:14
- .. 13th Mieke Kröger, (GER), +2:50
- 15th Antonia Niedermaier, (GER), +3:15
Men
- Remco Evenepoel, (BEL) 36:12 min, (53.702 km/h)
- Filippo Ganna, (ITA), +0:15
- Wout van Aert, (BEL), +0:25
- Joshua Tarling, (GBR), +0:27
- Brandon McNulty, (USA), +1:04
- Stefan Bissegger, (SUI), +1:26
- Nelson Oliveira, (POR), +1:31
- Stefan Küng, (SUI), +1:35
- Maximilian Schachmann, (GER), +1:38
- Mikkel Bjerg, (DEN), +1:43
