Olympic time trial 2024: the most important facts in brief
- Date: Saturday, 27 July, from 16:32
- Distance: 32.4 kilometres
- Start & finish location: Paris
- Current title holder: Primoz Roglic
The TOUR favourites by stars
* Sören Waerenskjold, Derek Gee, Kevin Vauquelin, Maximilian Schachmann
** Stefan Küng, Stefan Bissegger, Magnus Sheffield, Mikkel Bjerg, Mattias Skjelmose, Luke Plapp, Tobias Foss
*** Wout van Aert, Brandon McNulty
**** -
***** Remco Evenepoel, Filippo Ganna, Joshua Tarling
Three riders go for the gold medal
In the Olympic individual time trial in Paris, there are three riders who are likely to decide the victory among themselves: Remco Evenepoel, Filippo Ganna and Joshua Tarling. There is a gap behind them.
What's left in Evenepoel's tank after the Tour de France?
Remco Evenepoel took part in his first Tour de France just a few days ago - with outstanding success: the Belgian finished on the podium in the overall classification and won the white jersey as the best young professional. Evenepoel also proved that he is one of the best in the discipline in both individual time trials: he won the 7th stage and finished a strong third in the final 21st stage. Last year, the 24-year-old also won both time trials at the Giro d'Italia and became world champion in the individual time trial. The successes speak in Evenepoel's favour. Only his exhaustion after an energy-sapping Tour de France could throw a spanner in the works for the Belgian.
Ganna with full focus on the time trial
While Remco Evenepoel not only rode the Tour de France, but will also tackle the Olympic road race a week after the time trial, Filippo Ganna's focus is fully on the individual time trial. The Italian will arrive in Paris well rested and, like the Belgian, has packed plenty of self-confidence: he finished first and second in the two time trials of the Giro d'Italia 2024. Ganna is also a two-time world champion in the discipline and finished second in 2023. He only finished fifth at the 2021 Olympics - so the Italian still has a score to settle.
Is youngster Tarling upsetting the competition?
At the tender age of 20, Joshua Tarling is only in his second year on the World Tour. But the Brit is already one of the best time trialists in the world at such a young age. He has won five of his last nine time trials. These include victories in the British Championships and the 2023 European Championships. At his young age, he already has the class to leave Ganna and Evenepoel in his wake.
McNulty and van Aert with podium chances
There is a gap behind the three big favourites. However, if one of the three riders makes a mistake, there are two riders who could be in with a chance of a podium finish. Brandon McNulty has been extremely fast on the time trial bike this season, winning races at both the Tour of the UAE and the Tour de Romandie. So the form speaks in favour of the 26-year-old American.
Wout van Aert, on the other hand, has recently been trending downwards in the time trial. The Belgian celebrated great successes in the discipline in 2022 and 2023. He won three Tour de France stages in the time trial in both years and finished third at the 2023 European Championships. Due to injuries, van Aert has not really been in form this season, which is why he is only likely to be a clear outsider for the gold medal.
Two Swiss with outsider chances
Primoz Roglic won the last Olympic time trial in Tokyo in 2021. The unlucky man of the race back then was Swiss rider Stefan Küng, who missed out on third place and a medal by just tenths of a second. He will be competing again in Paris. As Swiss champion and with a top ten place in the time trial of stage 7 of the Tour de France, he will have to have a perfect day to be in contention for the medals. The same applies to his compatriot Stefan Bissegger. The 2022 European champion has recently been unable to attract enough attention in time trials to play a serious role in the medal race.
Mikkel Bjerg can be rated similarly to the two Swiss riders. The 25-year-old Dane is already a three-time U23 individual time trial world champion, but his development has stagnated recently. At the Danish Championships, he was outdone by Mattias Skjelmose, who is also in with a chance of a top placing.
Plapp and Sheffield in emerging form
Two youngsters have recently attracted attention in time trials: Luke Plapp finished in the top 7 in both time trials at the Giro d'Italia 2024, while Magnus Sheffield finished on the podium in the discipline at both the Giro and the Tour de Romandie. Both riders will have to hope that their rivals slip up, in which case they could be in contention for a podium finish.
Schachmann has his eye on the top ten
Only Maximilian Schachmann will be competing for Germany in the Olympic individual time trial. The 30-year-old from Berlin has recently been on the upswing and finished second behind Nils Politt at the German Championships. He finished a strong fifth in the individual time trial of the Giro d'Italia 2024 on stage 7 and eighth in the Tour of the Basque Country. A top ten place therefore seems within Schachmann's grasp - the Berlin will arrive in Paris well rested.
Olympia 2024: Start times for the men's individual time trial
- 16:32:00 Amir Ansari (Olympic Refugee Team)
- 16:33:30 Jan Tratnik (Slovenia)
- 16:35:00 Gleb Syritsa (Individual Neutral Athlete)
- 16:36:30 Alberto Bettiol (Italy)
- 16:38:00 Laurence Pithie (New Zealand)
- 16:39:30 Achraf ed Doghmy (Morocco)
- 16:41:00 Rui Costa (Portugal)
- 16:42:30 Oier Lazkano (Spain)
- 16:44:00 Ryan Mullen (Ireland)
- 16:45:30 Mathias Vacek (Czech Republic)
- 16:47:00 Michal Kwiatkowski (Poland)
- 16:48:30 Felix Grossschartner (Austria)
- 16:50:00 Attila Valter (Hungary)
- 16:51:30 Jambaljamts Sainbayar (Mongolia)
- 16:53:00 Binim Girmay (Eritrea)
- 16:54:30 Kevin Vauquelin (France)
- 16:56:00 Mattias Skjelmose (Denmark)
- 16:57:30 Sören Waerenskjold (Norway)
- 16:59:00 Derek Gee (Canada)
- 17:00:30 Daan Hoole (Netherlands)
- 17:02:00 Stefan Bissegger (Switzerland)
- 17:03:30 Magnus Sheffield (USA)
- 17:05:00 Maximilian Schachmann (Germany)
- 17:06:30 Wout van Aert (Belgium)
- 17:08:00 Yevgeniy Fedorov (Kazakhstan)
- 17:09:30 Lucas Plapp (Australia)
- 17:11:00 Tobias Foss (Norway)
- 17:12:30 Mikkel Bjerg (Denmark)
- 17:14:00 Nelson Oliveira (Portugal)
- 17:15:30 Joshua Tarling (Great Britain)
- 17:17:00 Stefan Küng (Switzerland)
- 17:18:30 Brandon McNulty (USA)
- 17:20:00 Filippo Ganna (Italy)
- 17:21:30 Remco Evenepoel (Belgium)
