The Paris Olympic Video games is already upon us following the conclusion of the Tour de France, and the street racing motion is first on the menu with the boys’s and ladies’s time trials each approaching the opening weekend (Saturday, July 27).
The cream of the crop of the world time trial stars have gathered in Paris for the uncommon alternative to tilt on the gold medal, with all of them tackling the identical flat 32.4km out-and-back course from Invalides to Pont Alexandre III by way of the Bois de Vincennes in France’s capital metropolis.
The time trial on the Olympic Video games has been round since 1912, when South Africa’s Rudolph Lewis gained the 320km males’s check. It was shelved after 1932, nonetheless, solely making a return at Atlanta 1996, the place the ladies’s time trial was additionally launched.
Since then, names together with Miguel Indurain, Kristin Armstrong (3 times), Fabian Cancellara (twice), Annemiek van Vleuten, and Primož Roglič have triumphed.
Learn on for our rundown on the highest favourites so as to add their names to the honour roll on the 2024 Paris Olympic Video games time trials.
Remco Evenepoel (Belgium)
It is no shock that the reigning world time trial champion Remco Evenepoel is among the many prime picks for Olympic gold within the time trial in Paris. The Belgian heads to the Video games from his debut Tour de France, the place he raced to 3rd general in Good.
He rounded off his experience with a 3rd place within the powerful hilly time trial over La Turbie and the Col d’Eze however powered to the stage win on the mid-race time trial in Gevrey-Chambertin, run on a flatter parcours.
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Earlier this yr, Evenepoel gained the flat 22km time trial on the Volta ao Algarve and the rolling 34km check on the Critérium du Dauphiné, whereas his Worlds win got here on a largely flat 48km course.
The principle factor that would depend towards him is a scarcity of freshness, particularly in comparison with a number of of his primary opponents, who did not race the Tour.
For his Belgian teammate Wout van Aert, the alternative could also be true. The 29-year-old scored seven top-10s through the Tour however wasn’t at 100%, so three weeks in France might have served as excellent preparation for Paris. (DO)
Chloé Dygert (USA)
Because the reigning time trial World Champion, the USA’s Chloé Dygert would be the heavy favorite heading into the Paris Olympics, as she appears to have success on each the street and observe in races towards the clock. It’s a course that fits her, with the flat 32.4km heading east and again into the centre of Paris enjoying to the strengths of the highly effective American.
It’s set to be her third Olympics after racing the workforce pursuit at Rio 2016 and Tokyo in 2021, additionally taking over the street occasions in Japan the place she was thirty first within the street race and seventh within the a lot hillier time trial. Nonetheless, Tokyo was on considered one of her many returns from setbacks after a significant crash at Imola Worlds the yr prior noticed her out of motion for a chronic interval, with a bout of Epstein-Barr virus then present process surgical procedure to deal with supraventricular tachycardia in 2022 additionally pushing again her street profession.
Since her gorgeous comeback to kind within the 2023 season, the place she took her first WorldTour win on the RideLondon Classique and went on to be ITT World Champion in Stirling, Dygert has well-established herself because the favorite for Paris. She has a silver and bronze medal already however appears set to go one higher with gold in Paris.
Nonetheless, even this season has been hampered by each harm and sickness, with an Achilles difficulty and COVID-19 all through the season leading to her not driving a street time trial for the entire season and her solely finishing three UCI race days.
Filippo Ganna (Italy)
Two-time world time trial champion and reigning Italian time trial champion Filippo Ganna might not be the unbeatable power he as soon as was within the self-discipline, however he heads to the second Video games of his profession with an incredible probability of strolling away with a medal of some description.
Final outing, in Tokyo, he positioned fifth, lacking out on bronze by two seconds and silver by 5, however you’d guess on him to enhance on that displaying this time round.
Ganna has opted for a quiet build-up to Paris, taking over the four-day Tour of Austria this month, the place he confirmed his kind with a final-day stage victory. He is constructed his whole season round Paris, the place he’ll additionally tackle the street race and defend Italy’s gold medal within the workforce pursuit on the observe.
This yr he has extra second locations in time trials and prologues (three) than wins, although these two victories on the Giro d’Italia and Italian Championships present that he’ll be a power to be reckoned with on the massive stage on the Olympics. (DO)
Ellen van Dijk (Netherlands)
Ellen van Dijk has had a wild 9 months within the run-up to the Paris Olympics, her third Video games after London 2012 and Rio 2016. From giving beginning to her first youngster Faas in October to returning to racing with Lidl-Trek in March, breaking her ankle whereas coaching in June and at last asserting earlier this month that she would have the ability to take part in Paris.
Regardless of the previous few arduous weeks of restoration which she has known as “the toughest problem of her profession”, the three-time World Champion towards the clock is to not be underestimated as a competitor for gold on July 27. Her final two titles got here back-to-back on flat programs 30km and 34km in size in Bruges and Wollongong from 2021 to 2022, just like the 32.4km flat effort due in Paris later this week.
Van Dijk may even be spurred on having missed out on the Tokyo Olympics, the place compatriots Annemiek van Vleuten and Anna van der Breggen bookended the rostrum with gold and bronze within the hilly time trial. With Demi Vollering taking over the ITT alongside Van Dijk, the Netherlands may as soon as once more be dominating the rostrum.
Brandon McNulty (USA)
The USA’s medal hope Brandon McNulty has constructed a status as a prime time triallist over time, to the extent that he has as many wins within the self-discipline as anybody in 2024.
Victories on the UAE Tour, Tour de Romandie (forward of TT teammate Magnus Sheffield), and final month’s US Nationals put him even with Evenepoel on three triumphs this season. Final yr, he took his greatest time trial consequence with fourth place on the 48km course on the Glasgow Worlds, even when he was 1:27 off gold.
He has Olympic expertise, having taken on the street race final outing in Tokyo, racing to sixth place. This shall be his Video games time trial, debut, nonetheless. Paris is his greatest purpose of the season, with each time trial and street race on the menu right here.
He is one other rider who heads into the Video games with contemporary legs in preparation for the twin assault, having not raced because the US Nationals again in mid-Could. (DO)
Grace Brown (Australia)
Australia’s Grace Brown is the very best finisher from Tokyo collaborating within the time trial, with Van Vleuten and Van der Breggen each retiring and silver medallist Marlen Reusser lacking out as a consequence of lingering sickness. She’s proved to be one of many very best riders towards the clock within the peloton, having additionally completed runner-up on the earlier two World Championships in Wollongong and Stirling.
She’s managed a prime 5 in her previous 16 time trials and is in good kind in 2024 after taking wins on the Australian nationwide championships and Bretagne Girls Tour, solely dropping out on the opening stage of the Giro d’Italia by one second to Elisa Longo Borghini (Italy.
It’s additionally set to be the ultimate Olympics of Brown’s profession having introduced she is going to retire on the finish of the season to return to Australia for good so she will cool down and luxuriate in household life which she has missed as a professional.
“Let’s see if I can log off in type,” Brown stated after asserting the tip of her biking profession. Paris is the right alternative.
Josh Tarling (Nice Britain)
Nice Britain’s hope for gold, Josh Tarling, is the latest large identify on the time trial scene, having shot to the highest of the self-discipline after turning professional straight from the junior ranks final yr.
Nonetheless solely 18, he kicked off his skilled profession with a podium spot on the Etoile de Bessèges time trial, then repeating the feat after his nineteenth birthday on the UAE Tour. In June he blitzed the time trial on the British Championships earlier than happening to even better issues – elite bronze at his house Worlds after which wins (beating Stefan Bissegger, Wout Van Aert, and Remco Evenepoel) on the European Championships and Chrono des Nations.
This season, he defended his nationwide title with ease with one other minute-plus margin to second place, additionally profitable the opening TT at O Gran Camiño. His racing summer season has been a light-weight one, with the Critérium du Dauphiné (second to Evenepoel within the time trial) and two days on the Nationals his solely outings.
Like Ganna, then, he’ll be contemporary as he heads to Paris for the primary Olympic outing of his profession aged simply 20. Former junior world time trial champion Tarling has already proven that he likes the massive events, so it would not be a shock to see him among the many medals once more right here. (DO)
Demi Vollering (Netherlands)
The Dutch are inclined to dominate the favourites checklist for any girls’s races as the highest nation throughout most disciplines, so it’s no shock that Demi Vollering makes this checklist even with Van Dijk seeming the stronger choice.
Vollering is one of the best GC rider in girls’s biking and that doesn’t come and not using a robust ITT in her arsenal, though she isn’t as robust within the self-discipline because the likes of Van Dijk and Dygert, who’re pure time trial specialists and greatest swimsuit the flat, energy course by means of Paris.
Whereas she didn’t win the Dutch nationwide championships, dropping out to Riejanne Markus in June, this did arrive after an enormous block of stage racing in Spain and Switzerland, when she gained 4 WorldTour stage races in a row together with the Vuelta, Itzulia, Burgos and Suisse.
Within the latter, she additionally gained her first time trial because the 2021 Ladies’s Tour, albeit on a mountain ITT, however she has managed a number of podium finishes in races towards the clock since then. A medal appears probably indirectly for Vollering.
Count on her to be contemporary heading into the Olympics, with the time trial and street race each on her menu earlier than she heads house to the Netherlands for the Grand Départ of the 2024 Tour de France Femmes the place she is going to defend her title from final yr. (JM)
Stefan Küng (Switzerland)
Stefan Küng has notched 20 time trial wins all through his profession, together with two European titles and 6 nationwide titles. However the Swiss hope has garnered a status as a virtually man on the massive time trial events.
In his debut Olympics outing in Tokyo, he took fourth place, fractions of a second away from bronze, whereas 10 time trial outings on the Tour de France have seen him end 5 occasions within the prime 10 together with two second locations. On the World Championships, he is scored third, fifth, and second (by simply three seconds) locations in 9 begins.
After the near-miss three summers in the past, the 30-year-old shall be decided to return away with a medal this time. He has one time trial win in 5 makes an attempt this season, the only triumph coming over a minute forward of Paris teammate and fellow contender Stefan Bissegger on the Swiss Nationals.
Since then, he is raced 19 days of the Tour de France which included a tenth place within the hilly mid-race time trial. Paris is presumably Küng’s ultimate probability at selecting up an Olympic medal in his profession and he’ll be decided to undo the frustration of Tokyo. (DO)
Elisa Longo Borghini (Italy)
Italy’s Elisa Longo Borghini is heading into the Olympics proper from an emotional and thrilling first general triumph on the Giro d’Italia Ladies, 13 years after she first rode her house Grand Tour. Spurred on by this, she appears like a potential medal contender in each street occasions.
Time trialling has gone properly for the Italian just lately having gained the stage 1 time trial on the Giro en path to taking her general victory. It was additionally towards a powerful subject with each Brown and Lotte Kopecky taking over the Giro, with Longo Borghini narrowly beating the Australian by one second into Brescia.
It wasn’t as flat a course as shall be taken on in Paris, nonetheless, Longo Borghini has been on a scorching streak of kind in 2024 after returning to the height of her powers from an harm and illness-riddled 2023 season, the place crashes, COVID-19 and sepsis have been among the many hardships she confronted.
Longo Borghini has completed tenth and fifth within the time trial on the previous two Olympics however she does have two bronze medals from the Rio and Tokyo street races. May Paris 2024 be the yr she lastly strikes silver or gold? (JM)
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