Soaking wet Paris roads, crashes and punctures contributed to an enthralling afternoon of time trial action at the Olympic Games, Great Britain’s Anna Henderson winning silver before Josh Tarling’s brutal mechanical saw him miss out on bronze by two seconds on an afternoon when Australia’s Grace Brown and TT world champion Remco Evenepoel won Olympic gold.
The bookies had USA’s Chloé Dygert and Brit Tarling as the pre-race favourites, but both suffered misfortune at the hands of Paris roads made treacherous by a non-stop downpour that has drowned the French capital since before last night’s soggy opening ceremony.
While Dygert was one of many to hit the deck during the women’s event, Tarling’s bad luck came in the form of a puncture, the dejected 20-year-old telling the TV cameras there had been “a lot of swearing” when he flatted, a valiant effort leaving him agonisingly just two seconds behind Wout van Aert who won bronze.
Tarling’s dad had only got hold of a ticket for the seats at the finish line hours before the start, a last-minute social media appeal getting him in in time to see the gut-wrenching drama unfold, Evenepeol winning gold ahead of Filippo Ganna and Van Aert.
In the women’s race, Brown stormed to the biggest victory of her career, a success made sweeter by it coming in her retirement year, Henderson taking silver and Dygert bronze.
? “I burst into tears when I found out!” ?
Just looks what it means to Anna Henderson to become an Olympic silver medallist ??#Paris2024 #Olympics pic.twitter.com/3f6nS2sMMT
— BBC Sport (@BBCSport) July 27, 2024
“I was a bit of a grandma on the corners but that paid off and I used my power on the straights, and here I am,” Henderson told the BBC afterwards. “It is really strange, I kind of blacked out through the whole thing. I knew I had to be super cautious because a lot of the girls had problems today. I am just really happy to be here and happy it paid off.”
Talking of those to have problems, USA’s Taylor Knibb fell four times, as even the staff member tasked with delivering her a spare bike struggled to stay upright.
— Cycling out of context (@OutOfCycling) July 27, 2024
Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig, Lotte Kopecky, Magnus Sheffield and numerous others all crashed, Ganna somehow keeping his Pinarello upright during this scary moment.
Absolutely amazed that Filippo Ganna kept that up whilst riding in the TT bars!#Paris2024 #Olympicgames pic.twitter.com/HnGm12a73v
— Mathew Mitchell (@MatMitchell30) July 27, 2024
Evenepoel had complained about the “shit” roads the route was using, but was one of the few riders to enjoy a seamless passage, the Belgian adding Olympic gold to the world champion’s rainbow jersey he earned a year ago in Scotland.
His compatriot Van Aert can count himself somewhat fortunate that Tarling’s puncture ensured him a bronze, although considering the classics star’s horrendous injury-hit year and comeback from a horrific crash in the spring, he would perhaps argue he was due a bit of luck.
Riding an eye-catching double disc wheel set-up, the Visma-Lease a Bike rider embraced Evenepoel at the finish, the pair undoubtedly looking to add to their medal haul in next weekend’s road race.
Deflated on and off the bike, Tarling deserved credit for his reaction to the adversity, pushing the medals so close before providing an admirable reflection on his afternoon to the BBC afterwards.
“The stars were miles apart today [they did not align],” he said. “It was a front puncture near the rim, I had no choice really but to make the change before that corner and then try my best. [There was] a lot of swearing. There’s not a lot I can do really. A bit of bad luck. We move onto the road race. I’m going to keep trying my best and we’ll see.”
One of those swear words made it into Tarling’s Eurosport interview, the Ineos Grenadiers rider summing his day up… “Shit happens, innit.”
All involved will hope the weather improves before next weekend’s road races, the Accuweather radar from this afternoon making grim viewing. Tough conditions for any bike ride, let alone a city centre time trial and cobbles.
13 thoughts on “Crash chaos at Olympic Games time trials, as GB’s Anna Henderson wins silver before Josh Tarling denied medal by agonising puncture in sodden Paris”
The most desperate luck for
The most desperate luck for Tarling. Maybe the fact that Remco would (almost) certainly have beaten him for gold anyway might, in a strange way, be a consolation? Galling to have missed a podium for sure but knowing a puncture robbed you of gold far worse, one would imagine.
Would be interesting to know
Would be interesting to know what the cause of the puncture was. Was it debris on the track or a problem with the wheel/tyre itself. I’m guessing they’re running tubeless?
I think Ineos generally run
I think Ineos generally run tubeless on their Bolides, don’t they? Most likely debris, there was so much rain that however much they swept the course it was inevitable that some crap would be washed back on.
Tarling, then Pidcock… any
Tarling, then Pidcock… any other rider had that issue?
I was told it was not possible to flat with tubeless, or only with a large cut…
S.E. wrote:
Personally not interested in tubeless, looks more hassle than it’s worth, but as far as I understand research has shown tubeless reduces the likelihood of a puncture by around (depending what research you look at) 50%-80%. I’ve never seen anyone claim it completely eliminates flats.
Depends how much sealant they
Depends how much sealant they were using. I suspect little or nothing and they were just using the tyres for their low rolling resistance.
Could more be done in future
Could more be done in future on sharp corners in cities where there are obvious banana skins like cobbles and granite blocks? e.g. anti-skid mats?
Could the white lines have been torched off where they were an obvious hazard?
Many of these crashes
Many of these crashes actually happened on “non-obvious bananas”…
(Even Ganna’s near-crash was not really from an “obviously” risky road feature…)
anke2 wrote:
Ganna was riding on the line of white paint and his front tyre slipped.
Most of the crashes I saw were on corners.
I thought it was a piss-poor course for showing off the discipline to the world. And the TV director was more interested in showing the architecture than the fastest riders late in the race. Thumbs-down emoticon from me.
Also just 34 starters in the men’s race and 35 in the women’s race is not exactly embracing the world. This all reinforces my feeling that the UCI World Champs is a far better and more interesting event (I also think that the rainbow jersey is far more iconic and memorable than having your bike painted a funny colour or other such tat).
The road surfaces were awful
The road surfaces were awful too. A distinctive lack of fresh tarmac that you might see in a TdF stage.
Agree with the TV cutaways to
Agree with the TV cutaways to the architecture. However, I thought the director was superb in that they showed everyone, no matter how far behind the leading time, on the finishing straight. Every rider would have got their own piece of Olympic history.
Also, nobody mentioned that Dygert’s crash was caused by her trying to pedal in the middle of the corner, the minute she pushed the inside pedal down her bike slid!
Simon E wrote:
The TV coverage was so bad that I assumed they must have been having trouble with the camera bike signal, as they sometimes do in the moutains when they go through wooded areas and they have to cut to panoramic helicopter shots. If it was deliberate, the director should be fired forthwith.
I’m sure if Luke Plapp hadn’t
I’m sure if Luke Plapp hadn’t crashed he would have been on the podium.