How the race finished
Grace Brown (Australia) stormed to gold in the Olympic Women’s Time Trial, over a minute and a half faster than silver medallist Anna Henderson (Great Britain) and bronze medallist Chloé Dygert (USA), who were separated by just one second. Full results are available below.
How it happened
The Women’s Olympic Time Trial was held over a 32.4 km route through the streets of Paris. A mostly flat, and not hugely technical route, there were some areas of uneven road surface – notably cobbles and stone pavers on some critical corners. A big factor was always going to be the impact of wet conditions, making a relatively benign course much more challenging.
Of the early starters, Yulduz Hashimi (Afghanistan) was one of those to impress, setting a new fastest time at the finish. Taylor Knibb (USA) then set a fast time of 16:37.12 at the first intermediate time check, before a horror run of three crashes and a mechanical with a bungled bike change saw her chances evaporate.Â
Marta Lach (Poland), Eugenia Bujak (Slovenia) and then Mieke Kroger (Germany) each set new fastest times before Kim Cadzow (NZ) set what would be the first truly competitive time of 41:46.02 at the finish. The young kiwi climber had previously sometimes shown weakness in tricky conditions, so this result on a flat course and on the world stage was an excellent display.
Former world champion Ellen van Dijk (Netherlands) would normally be amongst the favourites for the day, but a fractured ankle six weeks prior and a tentative approach in the slippery conditions meant she finished off the pace. Local hope Audrey Cordon-Ragot (France) also came up short of the time set by the flying Kiwi.
As more of the favourites set off, current world road race champion Lotte Kopecky (Belgium) appeared on track for an excellent time. A crash saw her hopes dented, but she quickly got back on her bike and still crossed the line for a new fastest time of 41:34.82, pushing Cadzow out of the hot seat. Soon after, Elisa Longo Borghini (Italy) came in slightly down on Cadzow’s time – perhaps a slightly sub-par result for a rider who has been so strong this season, and often shines in tricky conditions.
Juliette Labous (France) was the next rider to snatch the fastest time, with the local favourite coming in at 41:19.90. Demi Vollering (Netherlands) would follow shortly after, but couldn’t quite match Labous’ time, slotting into provisional 2nd place. Of the big-name riders to race, Anna Henderson (Great Britain) was the arguably the dark horse of the trio. She’s a rider who tends to excel in tricky conditions, but even she seemed surprised to set a new fastest time of 41:09.83.
With the final two favourites on the road, Tokyo fourth place getter Grace Brown (Australia) and reigning World Champion Chloe Dygert (USA) both looked to be considerably faster than everyone else. At the first checkpoint Brown had eked out a five second advantage, but it was still all to play for. However, soon after the first checkpoint, Dygert overcooked a cobbled corner, crashing catastrophically.
By the second checkpoint, Brown had extended her margin over Dygert to a huge 51 seconds. Dygert was clearly suffering, fading back towards the intermediate times set by Henderson. Brown powered on towards the finish, coming in at a time of 39:38.24. After second in the past two World Championships, Olympic gold is a massively deserved TT win for the rider retiring at the end of the season. Behind, Dygert came in one second down on Henderson. She looked to have hurt the leg she’d injured in Worlds TT crash, but her effort secured a Bronze medal. Â
Results
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