Ryan Mullen 12th as Remco Evenepoel takes gold in men's time trial

27 Jul 2024, 16:42 by AFP · The42

RYAN MULLEN FINISHED 12th in the men’s cycling individual time trial on Saturday, delivering a strong performance on a challenging day on the streets of Paris.

Belgian Remco Evenepoel added Olympic gold to his world title, defying rain and a strong field to win the 32.4km event.

The 24-year-old was almost 15 seconds faster than Italian Filippo Ganna in second while another Belgian, Wout van Aert, took bronze at 25sec.

British hope Josh Tarling finished fourth two seconds behind after losing time on an early puncture.

Mullen finished just 1:45.oo behind Evenepoel with a time of 37:57.16, which left him less than two seconds outside of the top 10.

The 29-year-old, competing in his first Olympics, had been just 5.86s off the lead at the 22km mark, posting the second-fasted time of the riders that had gone through.

“It was a slippery city centre circuit, it was just about managing risk and trying to deliver the power where it was feasible, feasible being a big underlined word there, because you couldn’t put power everywhere for risk of losing your backend or frontend,” said Mullen.

“I did what I could, I took the risk where I felt I could, I backed off where I felt like it wasn’t worth taking the risk, because like I said, I didn’t want to come all the way to Paris, after 15 years in the making of getting here to lie down on a roundabout somewhere so being safe and taking the calculated risk was the most important thing today and you just deliver the best ride you could do in the safest way possible.”

A day after it rained on the opening ceremony, dark skies hung low again over Paris as the first cycling event embarked from the military museum at Invalides.

At the ramps where riders set off at one-minute intervals Tarling and Ganna were pre-race favourites.

Evenepoel set off at a lightning pace and was in the lead at every time check.

The rain made for challenging conditions in Paris. James Crombie / INPHOJames Crombie / INPHO / INPHO

Ganna saved his fastest form for the finale, a five-kilometre home straight and in the final section overhauled Van Aert to move from third to second.

Evenepoel, a much smaller man, did better on his cornering than the other two medallists who are much larger men.

On the streets through the French capital he chose his line better and accelerated out of it sooner.

Evenepoel came third overall in the Tour de France last weekend, won the white jersey as best young rider and also won one of the time trials.

The Belgian was world time trial champion in 2023 and world road race champion in 2022 and will target an Olympic double next weekend in the 273km road race.

Earlier, Australia’s Grace Brown stormed to her first Olympic gold in the women’s individual time trial.