Liane Lippert kept looking back, but Mieke Kröger was at the end of her rope on Marine Drive.

In the last few meters, the dream of another medal was shattered for the German team in the mixed time trial.

After 28.2 kilometers, the Australian team was about seven seconds behind in bronze.

"We made the best of it, but we hurt ourselves in the last part," said track cycling world champion Kröger.

After gold last year, this time it was the thankless fourth place for Miguel Heidemann, Jannik Steimle, Nikias Arndt, Liane Lippert, Mieke Kröger and Romy Kasper.

Switzerland won the title.

Silver and Bronze went to Italy (2.92 seconds down) and Australia (38.4).

From a German point of view, however, a medal was not necessarily to be expected.

After all, not much was left of the gold team from the previous year.

Former time trial world champions Tony Martin and Lisa Brennauer have since retired.

Max Walscheid and Lisa Klein were also missing from the team this time.

Only Arndt and Kröger were back at the start.

"We did our best with the formation.

We cannot and do not want to replace Tony and Lisa.

We can only try to do it as well as possible,” added Kröger.

And it even looked good for a while.

At the penultimate split, Australia and Germany were level.

But in the finish there was a lack of strength, especially since Kasper had to let it tear off beforehand.

"My heart is bleeding.

I was so excited,” said Brennauer as a Eurosport commentator.

After the three German men had come from sixth place, Lippert and Co. started their race to catch up.

Kröger in particular proved to be a pacemaker on the flat sections.

That should pay off in the end.

“We could have divided it up better.

It was very close.

I had a bit too much energy at the end, which caused unrest in the group.

Mieke did a great job before that and couldn't keep up with my liveliness.

We lost in the end,” explained Lippert.

Annemiek van Vleuten fell

As a result, the Federation of German Cyclists (BDR) did not have a medal in the elite races in the time trial.

So far, there have only been podium finishes in the junior classes with Ricarda Bauernfeind in third place in the U23 women and second-placed Justyna Czapla and third place Emil Herzog in the junior division.

The race was very bitter for the Dutch team.

Bauke Mollema had a technical problem with the men and shortly after the change, superstar Annemiek van Vleuten fell heavily and had to retire.