Patrick Bevin fought gallantly for 10th placing in today’s 44.2km road cycling time trial.
The 30-year-old Taupo-based rider was not able to foot it with the likes of gold medallist Primoz Roglic of Slovenia, but he was always among the leaders.
Roglic won in 55min 04.19s, more than a minute ahead of second-placed Tom Dumoulin of The Netherlands.
Bevin finished in 57min 24.29s, which was 2min 20.10s behind the winner.
The second New Zealander in the time trial, George Bennett, who rode so bravely in the road race a few days ago, was 25th with a time of 1h 00min 28.39s.
Bevin has pointed all his efforts on this Olympic race for a long time. In fact, he bypassed the Tour de France to ensure he was primed and ready for his Tokyo ride.
He had no complaints afterwards about the course.
“It was an honest course. You had to battle all day,” he said. “You had to be good from the start to the 44th kilometre. There was no hiding, there was no recovering.
“It was hot, humid, everything we knew the Olympics was going to be.”
Though it was a tough day, Bevin enjoyed his time mixing it with the best in the world. “We don’t get to do too many stand-alone time trials, especially in the last couple of years, when it has been difficult to get many time trials on the board.
“It’s always an honour to pull on the silver fern, especially at my first Olympics. I will pull the ride apart in the coming days and look at how it shakes out.”