Women’s start time: 14:30 - 16:00 CEST
Men’s start time: 16:30 - 18:00 CEST
Number of athletes: 35 women, 35 men
Distance: 32.4km
Start: Esplanade des Invalides, Paris
Finish: Pont Alexandre III, Paris
The Paris Olympics will host the individual time trial on Saturday July 27, 2024, for both men and women. In both events, the best riders in the world at the race against the clock will be present, meaning medals are going to be hotly contested.
For the first time in Olympic history, the men’s and women’s time trial will be held on the exact same course with the same amount of elevation and distance. Both will be 32.4 kilometres long and feature 150 metres of elevation. It’s a virtually flat course with long straight sections which will showcase the pure speed of each rider. There are a few technical corners the riders will have to deal with, but with a 5km straight to the finish, it’s a course for the pure time triallists.
2024 Paris Olympics individual time trial route
The course will start on Esplanade des Invalides, just upstream from the city’s iconic Eiffel Tower. After rolling down the ramp, the course takes an immediate right-hand turn and heads east for 5km along the Boulevard Saint-Germain, crossing the Seine on Pont de Sully to reach Place de la Bastille. At Place de la Bastille, the riders will take a tight turn that’ll take them onto Avenue Daumesnil, another long straight road that lasts for 5km.
Route map sourced via Paris Olympics website
There is a technical right-hand turn outside the Vélodrome Jacques Anquetil – a venue that hosted the Paris Olympics in 1924 and two Tour de France finishes – which sees the riders hit the 20km to go mark. The course then twists and turns through Polygone de Vincennes, a popular destination for cyclists.
Once the riders pass the 10km to go mark, it’s a 5km straight back to Place de la Bastille, where they’ll rejoin Boulevard Saint-Germain. The last few kilometres are straight to the finish at Pont Alexandre III bridge, where the finish line will be awaiting the riders.
Men’s contenders
As expected, there’s a plethora of sensational male time triallists vying for the gold medal in Paris. Defending champion Primož Roglič (Slovenia) will not be taking part, so a new champion will be crowned.
World champion Remco Evenepoel (Belgium) is one of the clear favourites, but he is the only one of the real contenders that will take to the start after three gruelling weeks battling in the general classification at the Tour de France. Evenepoel looked in fine form in the final time trial to Nice, but how well he can maintain his condition and battle fatigue will be the most telling factor in his chances here.
Italian champion Filippo Ganna (Italy) meanwhile has raced sparingly since the Giro d’Italia, focusing fully on this time trial and a course that looks well-suited to him.
Likewise Josh Tarling (Great Britain) has not raced since winning his second British national time trial title in June, so will enter the Olympics fresh. The European champion is just 20 years old and is one of cycling’s rapidly rising stars. He finished third behind Evenepoel and Ganna at last year’s World Championships, but this flat course is really suited to his characteristics and he will be a real contender for victory here.
Wout van Aert (Belgium) has the pedigree to be a victor amongst this company, but his form even before his crash in March in the time trial has been questionable and it is likely the road race will be his main target. Nevertheless, on his day Van Aert is more than capable of medalling in this kind of time trial.
Elsewhere, Magnus Sheffield and Brandon McNulty (USA), Stefan Küng and Stefan Bissegger (Switzerland), Luke Plapp (Australia), Ethan Hayter (Great Britain), and former world champion Tobias Foss (Norway), are all potential contenders for medal positions.
Prediction
We think Josh Tarling will take the gold medal ahead of Ganna and Evenepoel.
Women’s contenders
One of the key favourites for the women’s time trial is two-time world champion Chloe Dygert (USA). At top form, Dygert is a formidable time triallist that can put heaps of time into the rest of the field, particularly on a flat power course like the one featured in Paris this year. However, she has raced sparingly this year due to injury so her form is relatively unknown.
Another contender on this course will be powerhouse Ellen van Dijk (Netherlands), a three-time world champion. The 37-year-old has already won three races against the clock this year, and an Olympic medal is a glaring omission to her glittering palmarès.
Grace Brown (Australia) is another formidable time trialist on the start list and will be hoping to score an Olympic medal after narrowly missing the podium in Tokyo. Brown, who will retire at the end of this year, would perhaps suit a hillier course than this, but nevertheless is a serious contender for a medal position.
The same could be said for Demi Vollering (Netherlands), who boasts an excellent time trial but may suffer for the lack of uphills on this course to hand her an advantage over the likes of Dygert and Van Dijk. Vollering will still be amongst the favourites though given her undeniable quality across all terrain.
Belgian champion Lotte Kopecky could also feature despite time trialling not being her specialist discipline. An all round supertalent, it wouldn’t be a shock to see Kopecky make it onto the podium here.
Elisa Longo Borghini (Italy) is riding high off the back of her Giro d’Italia win earlier this month, where she won the opening time trial, and she will hope to add another Olympic medal to the bronze she won in the road race in 2021
The likes of Britain’s Anna Henderson and Pfeiffer Georgi are outside contenders for medals, as are the defending road race champion Anna Kiesenhofer and her Austria teammate Christina Schweinberger. Juliette Labous and Audrey Cordon-Ragot will hope to go well in their home Games.
Prediction
We think Chloe Dygert will win the gold medal.
