Paris 2024 Olympics time trials: Everything you need to know

Paris Olympics time trial route

For the first time in the history of the Olympics, men and women will race the same course, over an equal distance, in the time trial. The organisers have laid on a lavish route to mark the occasion, too. Starting and finishing by Pont Alexandre III, the city’s most ostentatiously golden bridge, the riders will trace a 32.4km loop east, along the south bank – or rive gauche – and out into the Bois de Vincennes. They won’t need to look up from their tucked positions to hear the bells of Notre-Dame – which they’ll pass twice – but should they afford themselves a glance at their surroundings, they’ll see the towering column of the Place de la Bastille, the former royal residence of the Château de Vincennes, and the outdoor Vélodrome Jacques Anquetil, which hosted the 1900 and 1924 Games.

When GB’s gold medal hopeful Josh Tarling visited the French capital for a recon in June, together with teammate Anna Henderson, he was taken aback by how city-based the course is. “When they said it was in Paris, I didn’t know if it was going to be sort of near it, but it’s proper central, and it’s definitely fast,” Tarling told Cycling Weekly. “I think it could suit me, but I think it could suit two other guys as well. Well, more than two other guys…”

The world champion will no doubt be the favourite for gold in the men’s race in Paris. Known in his native Belgium as the ‘Aero Bullet’, the 24-year-old rides like he was born to race on a time trial bike. So much so, in fact, that he has been said to have “fast skin”, according to a report in Het Nieuwsblad last year. The finding came during wind tunnel testing, when results showed there to be less airflow resistance when he was bare-armed, compared to when he was wearing long sleeves. His confidence will be boosted by his victory in the first time trial at the Tour de France.

No rider is as synonymous with time trialling as Filippo Ganna. The Italian has ruled against the clock in recent years, with 26 of his 33 professional wins coming in the discipline – that’s 79%. He’s a master of short, powerful hit-outs, thanks to his track pursuiting background, but can sustain longer efforts, as evidenced by his Hour record, which he shelved in October 2022. Ganna missed out on a medal by just two seconds in Tokyo. Gold, to match his team pursuit spoils from 2021, would solidify his status as the greatest time trialist in history.

Asked by Cycling Weekly what his ambitions are for the Olympics time trial, Josh Tarling responded with one word: “Win.” The European champion, a product of his local Wednesday night TT scene, has had unprecedented success in his young career, winning five of his last nine individual outings against the clock. Since he was 12 years old, he has been yomping across 100-mile courses, and feels at ease hunched over his handlebars. Still, he’s keen to point out, he doesn’t see himself as a favourite in Paris. “Any pressure will be put on by me to do my performance rather than being a favourite,” he says. “I just want to win.”

A double world champion, Chloé Dygert has been through so much in the curtailed Olympic cycle since Tokyo in 2021 that she doubted if she’d ride again last season. An Epstein-Barr virus diagnosis in early 2022 was followed by heart surgery to treat dangerously accelerating beats. Few riders are as resilient as Dygert, though. Many will know her name from the crash she suffered at the World Championships in 2020, when she flipped over a metal barrier and lacerated her thigh. Today, her left leg is an inch smaller in circumference than her right one, but has still powered her to a TT world title.

“If I come fourth, I’ll be disappointed,” Grace Brown recently told The Guardian. It’s easy to understand why. Since the last Olympics, the Australian has contested 10 individual time trials, and only finished off the podium once. This year will be her last pop at an Olympic medal, with her retirement announced for the end of the season. That doesn’t mean she’s lacking firepower, though. Fans only have to watch back her win at April’s Liège-Bastogne-Liège, where she spent the day in the breakaway, then won the sprint against fresher legs. Now she’s after an Olympic crown to close her career.

The reigning British champion has quietly established herself as one of the peloton’s most consistent time trial performers over the last few years, even exceeding her own expectations. Ahead of last summer’s World Championships she told her coach she’d be “over the moon” with a top-10 placing, before going on to finish fourth. Henderson then backed up the result with second place at the European Championships the following month. Fun fact: her victory in this year’s National Championships marked the first of any rider wearing Giro’s spaceship-like Aerohead 2.0 helmet.

In the women’s event, Ellen van Dijk (Netherlands) would ordinarily be among the favourites, but the triple world champion’s form is unknown after she broke her ankle in a training crash in June, and hasn’t raced since. Denmark’s Emma Norsgaard could be a surprise package in her second stab at the Olympics. The 24-year-old has won her country’s national championships the last four years running, on flat routes not dissimilar to that built for Paris.

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Paris 2024 Olympics time trials: Everything you need to know

Paris Olympics time trial route

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