Chris Froome clinches bronze as Fabian Cancellara secures second Olympic gold at Rio 2016 time trial

Chris Froome fought to secure Great Britain's first cycling medal at Rio 2016, snatching bronze as Fabian Cancellara won his second Olympic gold after a superb time trial race.

The Tour de France champion sat in fourth in the final 10km of Wednesday's (10 August) time trial but produced a wonderful final surge to cross the finishing line to clinch a podium spot.

Cancellara, who won the same event in 2008 in Beijing, finished with a time of 1:12:15. Tom Dumoulin of Netherlands secured silver on 1:13:02, with Froome's (1:13:17) late surge seeing him leapfrog Spain's Jonathan Castroviejo into third.

On a day where rowing and tennis events were postponed due to poor weather conditions, the time trial cyclists rode through punishing winds and swirling rain in Pontal. Froome, who travelled to Rio hoping to extend his winning run having secured his third Tour de France in Paris just weeks ago, started last, by virtue of Sir Bradley Wiggins' victory in the same event in London four years ago.

Froome lost precious seconds between the first and second checkpoints to drop behind and the Briton continued to labour as he reached the next checkpoint. By the time he began his decent, he had fallen 32 seconds behind new leader Cancellara with a podium finish looking out of his grasp.

A powerful finish however saw him match his third place finish from four years ago in London.

A broken handlebar forced Australia's Rohan Dennis to change his bike with just over 55km of the race remaining. The changeover proved costly, with the 26-year-old having to settle for fifth place.

Froome's Team Sky teammate Geraint Thomas only qualified to ride in one event in Rio but the withdrawal of several racers after a series of crashes during Saturday's road race opened the door for him. The 30-year-old briefly led the trial having started ahead of many of the race's favourites, riding with typical heart and determination to finish with a time of 1:14:52, good enough for a top 10 finish.