JAPAN. Oyoma: Slovenian rider Primoz Roglic couldn’t participate in the ‘Tour de France’ this year after suffering injury in several crashes. This gap gave Roglic time to recover and prepare himself for the Olympics as was seen on July 28, during the Tokyo Olympics men’s Individual Time Trial Final at the Fuji International Speedway in Shizuoka, Japan when world champion Ganna who was inching ahead of him during the initial stages of the race couldn’t keep pace with the consistent speed of Roglic. Roglic eventually and gradually took the game entirely into his control and won comfortably in the end amidst a cheering crowd.
The route with two identical hilly laps
The route length for the individual time trial for men at the Tokyo Olympic Games is 44.2 kilometres. At Rio Olympics it was 54.5 km. The altitude gain in Tokyo is 846 metres which is again 200 metres less than the Rio Olympics. The route is represented by two similar hilly laps.
The first lap is located at the Fuji International Speedway where the riders start the race at high speeds downhill and the first climb appears while riders are crossing kilometre 5 which goes on for a distance of another 5 kilometres with an average gradient of 4.5%. Then after the descent, the riders re-enter the Fuji International Speedway with a 4.5% slope. The uphill terrain then levels out eventually after a 2 km stretch of rolling section. The second lap is almost similar to the first one.
Result – The Individual Time Trial Men
- ROGLIC Primoz (SLO) Time Taken: 55:04.19
- DUMOULIN Tom (NED) Time taken: 56:05.58
- DENNIS Rohan (AUS) Time taken: 56:08.09
- KUENG Stefan (SUI) Time taken: 56:08.49
- GANNA Filippo (ITA) Time taken: 56:09.93
- Van AERT Wout (BEL) Time taken: 56:44.72
- ASGREEN Kasper (DEN) Time taken: 56:52.21
- URAN Rigoberto (COL) Time taken: 57:18.69
- EVENEPOEL Remco (BEL) Time taken: 57:21.27
- BEVIN Patrick (NZL) Time taken: 57:24.29
Primoz Roglic
Born on October 29, 1989, Primoz Roglic, the Slovenian racing cyclist started his professional career as a ski jumper but switched to cycling and currently rides for UCI WorldTeam ‘Jumbo – Visma’. Roglič suffered a crash as a test jumper during official training at Letalnica bratov Gorišek in Planica, Slovenia in the year 2007. Soon after he quit ski jumping and took up cycling in 2012.
He initially rode with team Radenska, where he was coached by former professional cyclist Andrej Hauptman, who helped him develop his bike handling skills. At the 2017 ‘Tour de France’, Roglič became the first Slovenian to win a stage and in 2019, Roglič became the first Slovenian to win ‘Vuelta a España’. He has also finished third at ‘Giro d’Italia’ same year. In 2020 ‘Tour de France’ he secured second position. He won ‘Vuelta a España’ in 2020 also. He was the world No.1 road cyclist in the UCI World Ranking, holding the title for 75 weeks.
Tokyo Olympics 2020
Earlier, the much-delayed 2020 Summer Olympics at Tokyo got off to a huge ceremonial start amidst Coronavirus threat. The opening ceremony was a much toned down affair with countries participating with small delegations.
Cycling at Olympic Games
Cycling as a game was included in the first modern Olympic Games held in the year 1896. It is one of the five sports to have been featured at every Olympic Games. There are currently four cycling disciplines on the Olympic program. The cycling competitions of the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo will feature 22 events in five disciplines. Olympic cycling gradually evolved to include women’s competitions too.
Click here to view the complete schedule of Tokyo Summer Olympics 2020.
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