Tokyo Olympics: Men's Individual Time Trial - Live coverage

Hello and welcome to our live coverage of the men's individual time trial at the Tokyo Olympic Games.

The 39 riders are due to set off for the 44.1 kilometre time trial in just over an hour.

The weather conditions for the race against the clock look reasonable, with the temperature forecast for this afternoon at the Fuji International Speedway sitting at around 25°C.

There is a chance of showers, but hopefully they will hold off until after the time trial. 

The men take on two laps of the hilly 22.05-kilometre loop that the women's time trial was just run on, for a total distance of 44.1 kilometres. The start and finish is on the motor racing circuit and there are six distinct hills set along the route, bringing an elevation gain of 846 metres in total. This is not what you would call a flat, power time trial for the purists.

After riders roll down the start ramp on the start-finish straight of the track, they will head on a downhill run for the first four kilometres of their ride before beginning a five-kilometre climb to the highest point of the course south of the circuit.

The long loop to the south takes the riders past two golf courses and back downhill again – a five-kilometre descent – to the entrance of the motor racing circuit. The riders will then tackle another, smaller climb back to the start-finish straight before heading out on a full lap of the circuit.

Then, the rolling roads include another climb, though gentler than the previous two tests, back to the start of the lap. After that, it's time for one more lap of the kilometre circuit before finishing their effort.

There are not a lot of flat sections that riders can settle into for a sustained effort, though the long start-finish straight does provide a 1.48 kilometre opportunity.

The first rider onto the course, in just a little over half an hour, will be Ahmad Badreddin Wais of the IOC Refugee Olympic Team. The first-time Olympian escaped conflict in the Syrian Arab Republic. He starts at 2pm local time.

The last rider, at 4.10 pm local time, will be world champion Fiippo Ganna of Italy, who is also riding on the track in the team pursuit.

You can find the full list of start times here:

Tokyo Olympics men's time trial – start times

A closer look at the course the 39 riders on the start list will be taking on. 

There's no doubt Italy's Ganna is one of the men to beat. He had an incredible unbeaten run since January of 2020, which came to an end at Tirreno-Adriatico, where Wout van Aert (Belgium) won, but there have been more victories since then. Ganna won both the Giro d'Italia time trials. 

Wout van Aert's spectacular patch of form, which saw him walk away with three remarkably different stage wins at the Tour de France, makes it hard to go past the Belgian as a top contender – even though he came second to Ganna at the World Championships last year.

Then we have another Belgian, Remco Evenepoel, who has been focussed on building for Tokyo and the 21 year old came second in the Worlds in 2019 on a tough course.

The rider Evenepoel came second to at that World Championships, was Australia's Rohan Dennis, who skipped the road race to focus on his key event, the time trial.

Dennis, the 2018 and 2019 world champion in the discipline, looked to be riding his way to a medal back at the Rio Olympics, when trouble with his bars led to a bike change and as a result he slipped back to fifth.

There is more detail on some of the riders to watch here: 

Tokyo Olympics: 7 riders to watch in the men's individual time trial

Riders are rolling off the ramp

We have our first rider off the ramp Ahmad Badreddin Wais of the IOC Refugee Olympic Team.

Riders are leaving 90 seconds apart, with the men setting off in three waves.

Now we have Iran's Saeid Safarzadeh and then it is Azzedine Lagab of Algeria.

During the time trial we will get intermediate checks at the 9.7km, 15km, 22.1km, 31.8km and 37.1km mark.

The pictures from the course at the moment even have hints of blue sky peaking through. Not the horrible weather conditions that were feared with Tropical Storm Nepartak off the coast.

We now have  Amanuel Eri Ghebreigzabhier of Eritrea, Nikias Arndt of Germany, Stefan de Bod of South Africa and Hugo Houle of Canada also on the course.

Nicholas Roche (Ireland) has rolled off the ramp now, with Tanel Kangert of Estonia taking off before him.

National road race champion of the Czech Republic, Michael Kukrle off and riding now. 

Another national road champion out on the course, with New Zealand's George Bennett.

Lawson Craddock is now out in the first wave. The 29 year national champion from Texas is competing for the United States alongside Brandon McNulty who is starting in the third wave and definitely made a mark in the road race.

Nelson Oliveira of Portugual is also out on the road and that's the end of the first wave, with Great Britain's Tao Geoghegan Hart set to be the first of the second wave.

So far Canada's Hugo Houle is the fastest at the 9.7km point (13:20.44) of nine riders and South Africa's Stefan de Bod first at the 15km point (18:40.85), which 6 riders have gone through. 

Now Canada's Houle has taken the top spot at the 15km mark as well, 16 seconds ahead of Stefan de Bod

There is a solid gap to the second wave of riders, with Geoghegan Hart taking off at 2:56 local time (25 minutes away)

There's some big names to come in that second wave, including Geoghegan Hart of course, as Australia's Richie Porte will start straight after and then Belgium's Remco Evenepoel.

We talked about Evenepoel a bit earlier, so let's take a look at Porte. He didn't have a great day at the road race but is lining up alongside Dennis at the time trial for Australia with some solid results in the discipline behind him this year. Porte finished ninth at the Tour de France stage 5 TT, 6th in the race against the clock at the Critérium du Dauphiné (which he won)  and third and fifth in the Tour de Romandie time trials.

A number of the riders have made it through the first lap now and Hugo Houle (CAN) is in the lead out on the course again so far, with a time of 28:25.58. Stefan de Bod (RSA) is now just 17 seconds back.

There are some big gaps even with just half of the time trial done, with the distance between Houle and the last rider at this point stretching beyond five minutes.

All the riders in the first wave have now finished the first lap.

Craddock was sixth at the halfway mark, 1:31 off the pace set by Houle and Bennett was a couple of seconds further behind in eighth out of the first wave of 13 riders.

Canada's Houle is first at the 31.8km point as well but South Africa's de Bod is making up ground, just 7 seconds back now.

Hugo Houle's time at 31.8 kilometres was 42:46.11

We can see some of the riders in the second wave warming up, while Remco Evenepoel is sitting back all kitted up and ready to go.

Nelson Oliveira has caught and passed Craddock.

The second wave of riders are now out on the course, with Great Britain's Tao Geoghegan Hart rolling off the start ramp.

Richie Porte now sets off to take on the twists and turns that soon great the riders after the start line before the road opens up.

Remco Evenepoel is off and racing, the first of the Belgian's off the line.

2019 Tour of Flanders winner Alberto Bettiol (Italy) is off the ramp and next it is Lukas Kubis of Slovakia, the only representative of nation in the time trial.

Evenepoel is seriously tucked in out on the road, with his waxed chain. A little wobble on the corner but quickly pulls it back. 

We have our first rider coming across the finish line, Nikias Arndt with a time of 58:49.39

The time of the German, who was fifth off the ramp, was quickly topped by South Africa's Stefan de Bod who finished 52 seconds quicker.

Hugo Houle now moves into the hot seat, just. it was under a second ahead of Stefan de Bod with the Canadian delivering a time of 57:56.46 while de Bod came in with 57:57.10

First intermediate check from the second wave, with Geoghegan Hart slotting into sixth place of the 14 riders through so far. He is nearly 39 seconds off the time of Houle.

Richie Porte was even further back at the first check, 40 seconds slower.

The second wave of riders is now out on the course, with Toms Skujins (Lat), Patrick Konrad (Aut), Rigoberto Uran (Col), Alexey Lutsenko (Kaz), Ion Izagirre Insausti (Esp), Maciej Bodnar (Pol), Aleksandr Vlasov (ROC) and Maximilian Schachmann (Ger) having all rolled off the start line as well.

New leader at the first 9.7km check is Alberto Bettiol. with a time of 13:15.24

Evenepoel isn't out of this just yet and he's only three seconds off the lead now as he comes into this own in the middle section of the course.

Back at the start and Tom Domoulin is warming up on the rollers, wearing an ice-jacket. 

Craddock has crossed the line 5'56 down on Houle. The American will be disappointed with that effort given his expectations coming into the race. 

19.5km in and Evenepoel is five seconds down on the leader as he closes in on the end of the first lap. 

Bettiol was fastest at the first check as we see Bodnar ride through that section almost 30 seconds down. The Italian rider is on an absolute flyer.

Now Vlasov comes through the first check and he's not far off the lead as we see Tao Geoghegan Hart almost two minutes down at the end of the first lap. 

Porte is struggling though, and Evenepoel is going to lap him after one lap.

Porte is keeping Evenepoel at about five seconds but it's only a matter of time before the catch is made. 

At the halfway point Bettiol has faded to 18 seconds behind Houle. 

Uran is over the illness that hurt him at the Tour and he's third at the end of the first lap, just a handful off seconds off the lead.

Finish results

1. Hugo Houle (CAN) 57:56.46
2. Stegan de Bod (RSA) at +0.64
3. Nikias Arndt (GER) at +52.93

Evenepoel isn't really powering away at this point and he's only 1 second up at Houle, who struggled in the second half of the TT. Vlasov looks decent though and he's 4th at 10 seconds down at 22.1km. 

Evenepoel is about to gobble up his second Ineos rider of the day. This time it's Tao Geohegan  Hart who has lost three minutes to the Belgian. 

The conditions might have changed a bit here because a number of these riders aren't really putting Houle under pressure.

Evenepoel might not win this but he's rapid and he now has a 20 second lead over Houle as he enters the circuit for the final time.

37km in and Porte is three minutes down. At this rate Evenepoel will be in the hotseat but he's starting to struggle a bit here. This could be close.

Wave three is now starting, with Tobias Foss (NOR) off the ramp. 

Foss won the Norwegian time trial championships and took third on the opening time trial of the Giro d'Italia.

We have New Zealand's Patrick Bevin on the course along with Brandon McNulty of the United States, who impressed in the road race in the break with eventual winner Richard Carapaz.

Remco Evenepoel moves into the hot seat.

The Belgian has taken a serious chunk out of Hugo Houle's time with 35 seconds. He really pushed the pace in the last section.

That mean's the new mark to beat is 57:21.27

Bettiol slots into second, closing the gap with 16 seconds slower. 

But Rigoberto Uran is looking is charging in towards the line.

In the meantime Richie Porte finished back in tenth at this point and Geoghegan Hard in 12th so far. 

Evenepoel is sitting on the hot seat, rehydrating, but he's going to have to shift. 

Rigoberto Uran (Colombia) has taken the hot seat.

It was tight, but Uran posted a time of 57:18.69 compared with Evenepoel's 57:21.27

Disappointment for Evenepoel as Uran takes his chair with an advantage of 2.58 seconds, but it is a sporting fist pump between the two.

In the meantime a number of other riders have set off, with Tom Dumoulin (NED), Joao Amleida (POR), Kasper Asgreen (DEN), Primoz Roglic (SLO), Geraint Thomas (GBR), Rohan Dennis (AUS) and Stefan Kung (SUI) out on the course.

The road race silver medallist Wout van Aert (Belgium) is now out on the course and there is just one rider left to start.

Here goes world champion Filippo Ganna. The intermediate time checks are going to get even more interesting now. 

Tom Dumoulin (NED) just set the fastest time at the first 9.7km check point. Flying. 

Dumoulin, who came second in the time trial at Worlds in 2018, has delivered a time of 12:59.63 at the first intermediate timing point

But Roglic is faster!

At the time check at the 9.7km point Roglic has set the mark at 12:56.96 

Australia's Rohan Dennis is seven seconds back at the first check.

It is going to be a thirsty ride for France's Remi Cavagna, he dropped his drink bottle.

Cavagna has the fourth quickest time of the 37 riders that have gone through the first timing point.

Van Aert is four seconds behind Roglic at that first check. 

Now Ganna has come through and set a new top mark at that first point 12:56.37

Only just faster than Roglic, but faster nonetheless.

Tom Dumoulin is still flying half way through, delivering the new best time at the end of the first lap and catching the man that started 90 seconds ahead, Brandon McNulty.

At the 22.1 km mark the Dutch rider posted a time of 27:38.32

Kasper Asgreen (DEN) is now the 31st rider to finish the first lap and slots into second at that point but he is a large 45 seconds behind Dumoulin.

And now Primoz Roglic has come through and the Slovenian rider has trumped Dumoulin, with a gap of 8 seconds and a time of 27:29.93 at the halfway mark.

Here is our current hot seat rider when he was out on the course. Looks like he'll need to enjoy it while he can.

Rohan Dennis has come through the first lap third of the 35 riders through, down nine seconds on Roglic.

Geraint Thomas (GBR) is quite a lot further back at the half way mark, down 55 seconds.

Wout van Aert is about to finish lap 1

At the 22km check Van Aert is ten seconds off Roglic's time, now lets see what Ganna can do. 

He's back from Roglic too!

The clock stops with Ganna eight seconds behind Roglic at the halfway mark.

The times are tight among the top contenders, with just over 10 seconds separating the top five at the half way mark. 

New Zealand's Patrick Bevin is still running well, second of 27 riders at the 37km check point, but of course we have a bunch of fast men to come.

Primoz Roglic climbs his way past the rider who started 90 seconds ahead Kasper Asgreen. 

Dumoulin is keeping the pace up, carrying the momentum through the downhill as he heads past the 37.1km timing point, leading of course at this point, with 29 riders through. He has set a time of 46:42.29 at that last check before the line.

Rohan Dennis has rolled on past Geraint Thomas.

Kasper Asgreen has gone back past Roglic on the descent.

Asgreen has taken advantage of the section that suits, but is Roglic slowing?

Maybe not, he is about to catch Asgreen again but first he'll go past Portuguese rider  Joao Almeida, who started 3 minutes ahead.

Rather unusual to see three riders in the same shot during a TT.

New Zealand's Patrick Bevin has come over the line in third currently.

Stefan Kung has caught Remi Cavagna

Tom Dumoulin set s the new fastest time

A huge margin for the Dutch rider on Uran's time, 1:13 better.

With 28 riders through the finish line the mark to beat is now 56:05.58

Let us see what Roglic can do, he is powering toward the line.

What a time, he has taken more than a minute off Dumoulin.

A time of 55:04.19 for Roglic and he looked like he wanted to keep going, riding on past the finish line.

At the 37 kilometre timing point even Ganna is well off Roglic's time.

The world champion is 44 seconds back at that final intermediate time point, Kung is 46 seconds back and Dennis 49 seconds.

Suprisingly Van Aert is also more than a minute behind at that final check – 1:16 in fact.

Rohan Dennis slots into third for now, 1:03 behind Roglic.

And Geraint Thomas also comes across the finish line, in ninth for now.

Looks like Roglic can get comfortable in that hot seat. 

Stefan Kung misses out on third by less than a second, so Dennis still sits in the bronze medal position at this point.

Wout van Aert falls outside the medals.

With just Ganna still out on the course Van Aert has slotted into fifth place. Silver at the road race will have to do.

Ganna is charging toward the line.

Outside the medals too.

This is not the top 3 most were expecting.

Gold for Primoz Roglic (SLO)

Silver for Tom Dumoulin (NED)

And Bronze for Rohan Dennis (AUS)

What a turnaround for Roglic after his tough Tour de France, with falls and the abandon on stage 8.

Tom Dumoulin has certainly leapt back into cycling in style, taking his first major win since 2018 by winning the Dutch national time trial title in June and now a silver medal at the Olympics in the discipline.

Rohan Dennis, too, has delivered Australia its first cycling medal of this Olympic Games, with Grace Brown just missing the podium earlier in the day.

You can read our report on the men's time trial here:

Olympics: Primoz Roglic wins gold for Slovenia in men's time trial

Outside the medal positions, Stefan Kung (Switzerland) came fourth, less than a second off bronze. Then it was the favourites Filippo Ganna (Italy) and Wout van Aert (Belgium). 

Kasper Asgreen (Denmark) came seventh while Rigoberto Uran (Colombia), who had a long stint in the hot seat, ultimately ended up 2:14 behind the winning time in eighth. 

Then it was Remco Evenepoel in ninth, making Belgium the only nation to have two riders in the top ten. New Zealand's Patrick Bevin took the final top-ten spot.  

The podium ceremony is underway and Rohan Dennis gets his bronze medal, with his smile creeping beyond the confines of his mask. Nice to make it to podium after things didn't go his way in Rio. 

Dumoulin looks just as happy with his silver and Roglic enthusiastically leaps up to the podium to claim his gold medal.

It is the first gold medal in any cycling discipline for Slovenia.

Tom Dumoulin's silver also make him the first man from the Netherlands to win two Olympic medals, as he also took silver in the time trial in Rio. That time he came second to Fabian Cancellara.

It is also a second Olympic medal for Dennis. He may have missed out in the time trial when he came fifth at Rio after a mechanical but he took a silver medal on the track in London in the team pursuit.

The podium

And just off the podium, but still with no regrets, was Stefan Küng:

Küng pipped to Olympic bronze despite an 'almost perfect' time trial

From the gold medal winner:

"I just went out – I had nothing to lose, I just went all out from kilometre zero and fought for every kilometre and I managed to come to the finish. That was my job, and I did it good and the time said it was enough for the gold medal and I'm super pleased for that."

Roglic bounces back from Tour disappointment with dominant Tokyo Olympics time trial gold

Thanks for joining us for our coverage of the men's time trial at the Tokyo Olympic Games. That's all from this live coverage but we have plenty more from today's time trials, and the rest of the cycling at the Olympics, coming on the Cyclingnews site so stay tuned.