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Great Britain’s Josh Tarling missed out on an Olympic bronze medal in the men’s individual time trial by just 2.16 seconds after his efforts to salvage his race following an early puncture ended in heartbreak on the streets of Paris.
Tarling suffered a puncture to his front tyre and had to change his bike as he navigated the 32.4-km course, which was made dangerously wet by heavy rain. But despite that early setback, the 20-year-old Tarling managed to claw back time to threaten the medal positions.
Ultimately, though, Tarling finished agonisingly short of the podium, with Belgium’s Wout van Aert claiming bronze, Italy’s Filippo Ganna silver and Remco Evenpoel winning gold for the Belgium team. The top four finished within 28 seconds of each other and well ahead of the rest of the field. There was a further 35 seconds from Tarling to the USA’s Brandon McNulty in fifth.
The time Tarling lost changing his bike in the mechanical resulted in bronze slipping through his fingers.
“Yes... Sh** happens, innit,” he said. “It just sucks, you know, a lot of effort in. It happens. Front puncture, it was on the rim, that corner coming up, I had to change. It’s annoying, in a few days, I’ve got the road race to come. We’ll see.
“I’ll try and forget it but I’ll watch it back as a fan, they all did amazing rides and it was good to watch. Everyone who got a medal deserves it.”
There was joy, meanwhile, for Britain’s Anna Henderson, who claimed a stunning silver in the women’s individual time trial as she edged out third-placed Chloe Dygert by less than one second.
On a day that saw several riders - including Dygert - crash, Henderson got the power down to clock a time of 41 minutes 10.7 seconds over the 32.4km course, one minute and 31 seconds down on Australian Grace Brown’s gold medal-winning ride.
"I had half an eye on a dream on the podium, and I didn’t think I could come this far on the podium so I’m really pleased," Henderson said.
Two-time former world champion Dygert, who has already endured a season hit by injury and illness, crashed just before the second intermediate time check, and the American was clearly in pain as she made her way to post-race interviews, having finished nine tenths of a second off Henderson’s time.
