Kristin Armstrong of USA wins third Olympic time trial title in a row

Kristin Armstrong of the United States has won the Olympic time trial for the third time in succession, equalling the record for gold medals won in women's road cycling.

The last rider out on the course, the American - who celebrates her 43rd birthday tomorrow - snatched victory on a rain-drenched and windswept morning in Rio by 5.55 seconds from Russia's Olga Zabelinskaya, bronze medallist in the road race and time trial at London four years ago.

Armstrong equals Leontien van Moorsel's record of three Olympic victories on the road. The Dutch rider won the road race and time trial at Sydney in 2000 and the time trial in Athens four years later.

Zabelinskaya had only been cleared to ride following a Court of Arbitration of Sport ruling last week which held that the exclusion from Rio of riders who had served a doping ban was invalid, and would have proved a controversial winner.

She rode strongly on the latter part of the course to post a time of 44:31.97 and seemed poised to take the gold medal until Armstrong, who had lagged her at the second time check, came back with a storming finish to enter the record books.

Anna ven der Breghen of the Netherlands, winner of the road race on Sunday, was third, finishing in a time of 44:37.80.

Her compatriot Ellen van Dijk finished fourth, 22 seconds down on Armstrong, and would surely have challenged for the medals had she not drifted off road and into the vegetation lining it on the first climb, destroying her momentum.

Team GB's Emma Pooley, a controversial inclusion in the squad after deciding earlier this year to come out of her retirement from cycling to target the time trial at Rio, was off the pace from the beginning and finished 14th of the 25 starters, 2 minutes and 5 seconds behind the winner.