Anna Henderson stormed to a sensational silver medal in the women’s time-trial on the first day of the Olympic Games, while Josh Tarling suffered an unfortunate puncture to finish fourth in the men’s race as riders battled the rain in Paris.

With both British riders making their Olympic debuts, it was also the first time both the men and women completed the same distance at the Olympic Games, with all riders tackling the flat 32.4km course, starting at Les Invalides and finishing at Pont Alexandre III in Paris.

Women

Anna Henderson stormed down the ramp onto the roads of a rain-soaked Paris as the fourth last rider to set off onto the course. At the first intermediate time check 13km in, the British rider clocked the third fastest time of 16:23.14 behind Chloe Dygert (USA) and Grace Brown (Australia). 

Dygert slid out of the corner just before the second time check as the rain continued to tumble down, with the American rider sitting in second place just two-hundredths of a second ahead of Henderson, who clocked 27:59.93.

Coming into the final rise to the finish, Henderson attacked hard, gritting her teeth and putting down an unbelievable amount of power to cross the line in the hot seat on 41:09.83 with two riders remaining to guarantee a medal for Team GB.

Brown followed soon after, clocking 39:38.24 to be crowned the Olympic champion, before Dygert crossed the line in third place to grant Henderson a superb silver medal for Great Britain by 0.87 seconds.

Speaking after her medal winning performance, Henderson said:

“I can’t believe it really. I can’t believe the journey I’ve been on and I’m really thankful to all the people around me. We really pulled it off today and all the stars aligned!

“I had a small feeling that maybe I could push for the podium, and to be second behind someone like Grace Brown, I can’t believe it – I burst into tears when I found out! I broke my collarbone twice this year and it’s been a rough year and to achieve a goal like this is unbelievable. I missed the worlds podium last year by two seconds and I thought ‘this is not going to happen again’, so I just kept pushing all the way to the line and it was really horrible conditions out there so I’m just really happy.”

Men

Josh Tarling exploded out the ramp and settled into his powerful rhythm through the streets of Paris, before disaster struck, suffering a front tyre puncture early on. Staying calm and collected, Tarling changed bikes smoothly, losing about 30 seconds before tucking back into position and putting the hammer down once again.

Despite the mechanical, Tarling still went through the first checkpoint in sixth place, 13 seconds off world time-trial champion Remco Evenepoel (Belgium). 

Tarling continued to storm along, pulling back 10 seconds at the second time check as the rain continued to fall heavily. Meanwhile at the finish, Wout van Aert (Belgium) made into the hot seat, crossing the line in 36:37.79. 

Evenepoel then clocked the fastest time at the second time check, with Tarling sitting in fourth place overall and only a second off the podium places.

In the final straight to the finish, Tarling gave it his all, sprinting hard out the saddle and clocking 36:39.95, just two seconds behind the leading van Aert. 

The 20-year-old British rider had to wait nervously before a fast-finishing Filippo Ganna (Italy) saw Tarling knocked into third. With Evenepoel the only rider left on the course, he asserted himself as the world champion and powered to the finish to take the Olympic title, and push Tarling into fourth position.

Speaking after the race, Tarling said:

“I think I had a front puncture on the rim, and I knew I had to change it before that corner, and I had no choice really. There’s not a lot more I could’ve done. We move onto the road race now. I’m going to keep trying my best and we will see.”

Tomorrow the action moves over to Elancourt Hill where Evie Richards and Ella Maclean-Howell will contest the women’s mountain-bike cross-country race. You can watch on Discovery+ or BBC from 13:00 BST and follow the results on the British Cycling social media channels.