Corbin Strong slogged away for 6h 22min and finished a creditable 27th in the gruelling 273km men's cycling road race today.
The race took in all the wonderful tourist sites of Paris and finished directly under the Eiffel Tower, but the 90 riders didn’t have much time for taking in the sights.
This was a demanding race, with breakaway groups, good team riding, pure power and speed and a lot of drama, right into the final kilometre.
The two New Zealanders, Strong and Laurence Pithie, gave a good account of themselves, but were up against some major European teams that were well resourced and expertly organised.
The race was won by the brilliant Belgian rider Remco Evenepoel, who thus becomes the first rider ever to win the road time trial and the road race at the same Olympics. He was timed at 6h 19min 34s.
But dominant though Evenepoel was superb, he had heart palpitations with 1.6km to go when he punctured and had to frantically wave down his support vehicle and get a replacement bike.
Fortunately for the Belgian he’d build up such a lead he was still able to reach the Eiffel Tower before the chasing group.
Frenchmen Valentin Madouas and Christophe Laporte took the silver and bronze, finishing just over a minute behind Evenepoel.
The New Zealanders rode well, with Strong just off the back of the peloton that broke up on the final city lap.
Strong finished in 6h 22min 31s, 2min 57s behind Evenepoel, and Pithie hit the line in 6h 26min 57s, in 39th place.
Thirteen of the starters did not finish the race.