Some of the strongest professional cyclists in the world fought an exciting, “tight” race, Primož Roglič rode his own.

The 31-year-old was incredibly far ahead of the competition in the Olympic time trial.

If there were discussions in the Slovenian camp before the Olympic time trial about who should get a starting place in the country - Tour winner Tadej Pogačar or Vuelta champion Roglič - these should already have been silenced during the competition.

In any case, Roglič seems to have overcome the injuries caused by the fall that forced him to leave the Tour de France.

On the second half of the 44.2 kilometer long, hilly course in Fuji, he turned it up a notch and secured the gold medal with a lead of 1:01 minutes.

Dumoulin wins silver

“Primož was from another planet,” said Tom Dumoulin.

The Dutchman was the best among the “earthly participants” on Wednesday and was deeply touched by his silver rank.

Dumoulin had taken an indefinite break from cycling at the beginning of the year and justified this with the fact that he could no longer withstand the mental rigors of his sport.

“It was a difficult way to get here.

I was overtrained in winter and cycling through.

But I decided to come back especially for that day, ”said the 30-year-old, who rides for the Jumbo-Visma team with Roglič.

The Olympic perspective has therefore brought Dumoulin back to his old level of performance in the saddle.

He impressively demonstrated this in Japan.

The reward: after finishing second in the time trial four years ago in Rio, he won his second silver medal.

The riders Roglič and Dumoulin left the time trial specialists behind.

The Australian Rohan Dennis made it to bronze with three seconds behind Dumoulin.

The Swiss Stefan Küng, already unlucky in the time trial at the Tour de France, missed the podium by only tenths of a second.

The Italian Filippo Ganna, who until recently was considered invincible in the fight for the clock and had consistently prepared for his Olympic appearance, disappointed in fifth.

The Berlin Maximilian Schachmann had hoped for more, but according to his own statement, he still felt the exhaustion from the street race and finished fifteenth.

In the previous women's time trial, the former world champion in this discipline, Lisa Brennauer, could not fulfill her dream of a medal.

In the victory of the Dutchwoman Annemiek van Vleuten, the 33-year-old finished sixth, as in the road race.

After the German men and women missed out on the road and mountain bike races, the hopes of the Association of German Cyclists are now on the track competitions.