Cycling at the 2012 Summer Olympics – Men's road time trial


The men's road time trial, one of the cycling events at the 2012 Olympic Games in London, took place on 1 August over a course in southwest London and Surrey.
Bradley Wiggins of Great Britain won the gold medal.

Qualification

Each nation in the top 15 of the 2011 UCI World Tour, top 7 of the UCI Europe Tour, top 4 of the UCI America Tour, top 2 of the UCI Asia Tour and leaders of the UCI Oceania and Africa Tours qualified to have one rider in the race. In addition, ten nations gained an extra rider through the performance of their riders in the 2011 UCI World Time Trial Championships; these were Germany, Great Britain, Switzerland, Australia, Netherlands, Kazakhstan, Denmark, Spain, Sweden and Canada. The United States were given an extra rider at the expense of Luxembourg, who were not represented in the race.

Pre-race favourites

The defending champion in this discipline was Fabian Cancellara of Switzerland. He was expected to mount a strong challenge, but crashed heavily in the closing stages of the Olympic road race, initially putting his participation in the time trial in doubt. Scans revealed that he had avoided breaking his collarbone for the second time in the season, though, and he started in the time trial.
Bradley Wiggins of Great Britain was also considered a big favourite, having won seven previous time trials in the 2012 season.. Current world champion Tony Martin of Germany was tipped as an early favourite, but had suffered an injury-wrecked season, and pulled out of the Tour de France in an effort to be fit for the Olympic race.
Of the other contenders, Great Britain's Chris Froome had shown strong form at the Tour de France, where he finished second in two time trials. Michael Rogers, the 2003–2005 time trial world champion represented Australia, with 2011 Tour de France winner Cadel Evans electing not to start due to fatigue. Young American Taylor Phinney, who won the opening time trial of the 2012 Giro D'Italia represented the United States. Sylvain Chavanel was the sole French rider, along with Luis León Sánchez of Spain and Marco Pinotti, winner of a time trial in the Giro, who represented Italy.

Course

The competition consisted of a time trial over one lap of a course, with staggered starts.

Schedule

Results

The entry list was published on 1 August.
RankRiderCountryTime
Bradley Wiggins50:39.54
Tony Martin51:21.54
Chris Froome51:47.87
4Taylor Phinney52:38.07
5Marco Pinotti52:49.28
6Michael Rogers52:51.39
7Fabian Cancellara52:53.71
8Bert Grabsch53:18.04
9Jonathan Castroviejo53:29.36
10Janez Brajkovič54:09.72
11Lieuwe Westra54:19.62
12Vasil Kiryienka54:30.29
13Edvald Boasson Hagen54:30.87
14Lars Bak54:33.21
15Jakob Fuglsang54:34.49
16Gustav Larsson54:35.26
17Philippe Gilbert54:39.98
18Nelson Oliveira54:41.57
19Jack Bauer54:54.16
20Denis Menchov54:59.26
21Ramūnas Navardauskas55:12.32
22Lars Boom55:29.74
23Alexander Vinokourov55:37.05
24Fumiyuki Beppu55:40.64
25Maciej Bodnar55:49.67
26Magno Nazaret55:50.77
27David McCann56:03.77
28Ryder Hesjedal56:06.18
29Sylvain Chavanel56:07.67
30Michael Albasini56:38.38
31Assan Bazayev56:40.77
32Luis León Sánchez56:59.16
33Tomás Gil57:05.12
34Mouhcine Lahsaini57:25.24
35Fabio Duarte57:34.20
36Alireza Haghi57:41.44
37Ahmet Akdilek59:11.19