PARIS (AP) — Grace Brown of Australia won the women’s Olympic time trial on the wet, treacherous streets of Paris on Saturday, safely staying on her bike even as American favorite Chloe Dygert and many of her biggest rivals kept hitting the deck.
Brown stopped the clock in 39 minutes, 38.24 seconds in a dominant performance in the first cycling event of the Summer Games. Anna Henderson of Britain finished 1:31 back in second while Dygert, the reigning time trial world champion, remounted after crashing hard on a left-hand turn and managed to claim the bronze medal.
Juliette Labous of France, cheered on by the home nation, finished just out of the medals in fourth. Demi Vollering was fifth for the Netherlands, which had claimed the gold and bronze medals in the time trial at the Tokyo Games.
Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig of Denmark, one of the favorites in next week’s road race, was among numerous riders who crashed on pavement made wet by persistent rain. So was Taylor Knibb, the surprising American time trial champion, who also has qualified for her second consecutive Summer Games in the triathlon.
In fact, it was so slippery that one of Knibb’s support crew also fell while trying to give her a new bike.
The riders set off in 90-second intervals from the great gilded dome of Les Invalides on a twisty, 32.4-kilometer (20-mile) route, marking the first time that the women and men covered the same distance in an Olympic time trial.
They crossed the River Seine and powered past the Place de la Bastille, the endearing symbol of the French revolution, before paying homage to some of the nation’s great cyclists. First came a loop through Bois de Vincennes park, where two-time Tour de France winner Laurent Fignon trained, and then a trip past Vélodrome Jacques Anquetil, named for the five-time Tour winner.
But after all the twists and turns, the race ended with a flat-out finish to the ostentatious Pont Alexandre III bridge.
Kim Cadzow, the 22-year-old time trial champion of New Zealand, threw down the fastest ride of the early starters. She stopped the clock in 41:46.02, setting up a long wait for her in the hot seat with the favorites still on the course.
Ellen van Dijk of the Netherlands, a three-time world champion, struggled mightily after her prep was derailed by a fractured ankle that required surgery just six weeks ago. Van Dijk was well behind by the first time check and kept losing ground before finally crossing the finish line 2:43 behind the winning time.
Brown, who has said this will be her final season of competitive cycling, was the penultimate rider off the start ramp and quickly set the pace. She put five seconds into Dygert at the first checkpoint and breezed through the second nearly a minute ahead.
Dygert was trying desperately to stay close before hitting a left-hand turn, where the pavement turned to cobbles. Her bike slid out from under her, Dygart went down hard, and the time it took to remount and get back to speed proved costly.
The pre-race favorite was left with a bronze medal to add to the silver and bronze she had already won on the track.
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