Picture by Ed Sykes/SWpix.com Remco Evenepoel won the mens individual time trial (ITT) on Saturday, ahead of Filippo Ganna (Italy) and his Belgian countryman Wout van Aert.Following Australias Grace Browns success in the womens individual time trial, Belgiums Remco Evenepoel took gold in the mens event, on the first day of cycling medal competition at the Olympic Games Paris 2024.An average speed of 53.7 km/h saw the Belgian star cover the 32.4km course from the Esplanade des Invalides to the Pont Alexandre III Bridge, passing by Vincennes, its woods and the Jacques Anquetil velodrome in a time of 361216, to get the better of Italys Filippo Ganna (+14) and his fellow Belgian star, Wout van Aert (+25).The rain that poured on the opening ceremony and on the womens ITT also affected the mens event, putting an increased focus on the riders handling skills.The first male rider to start, half an hour after Browns success, was Amir Ansari, who was born in Iran, grew up in Afghanistan, fled to Sweden and is now part of the International Olympic Committees (IOC) Refugee Olympic Team.Italys Alberto Bettiol, the fourth rider off the start ramp, took the hot seat before he was overthrown by Irelands Ryan Mullen, who was himself soon beaten by Czech Republics Mathias Vacek.The intensity kept increasing as the the bigger names in the speciality against the clock rolled down the ramp. Great Britains wonderkid Joshua Tarling displayed his power but suffered a puncture, while the USAs Magnus Sheffield went down.No such incident hampered the effort of Wout van Aert, who took the provisional best time and saw Tarling finish only 2 behind him. Ganna narrowly escaped a crash of his own and his effort was enough to be faster than Van Aert. But there was no containing Evenepoel, who adds the Olympic Games glory to his winning record after his UCI World Champion titles (road race in 2022 and individual time trial in 2023).I cannot describe the feeling I had on the podium, Evenepoel said, after he was awarded the gold medal. Its a magical moment in my life. We watched the womens race before we got into our warm-up and we saw the crashes so we decided not to take any risks in the corners and to push a bit more on the straights, and it was a good strategy. With a third spot in the Tour de France and a victory here, tiredness doesnt matter, the motivation and the positive feelings overtake everything.Irelands Ryan MullenFifteen years after his first appearance for Ireland, Ryan Mullen made his Olympic debut in the Mens Individual Time Trial finishing an outstanding twelfth place; notably Irelands best ever result in the event.Racing 32.4km around a rain-soaked Paris, Mullen finished in 37:57.16 just 1 minute 45 seconds behind newly crowned Olympic Champion Remco Evenepoel of Belgium (36:12.16).Speaking after the race the 29-year-old said; It was a slippery city centre circuit, it was just about managing risk and trying to deliver the power where it was feasible, feasible being a big underlined word there, because you couldnt put power everywhere for risk of losing your backend or frontend.I did what I could, I took the risk where I felt I could, I backed off where I felt like it wasnt worth taking the risk, because like I said, I didnt want to come all the way to Paris, after 15 years in the making of getting here to lie down on a roundabout somewhere so being safe and taking the calculated risk was the most important thing today and you just deliver the best ride you could do in the safest way possible.Mullen returns to action in the Mens Road Race on the 3rd August.Full ResultsThe post Paris 2024: Evenepoel takes a new ITT crown + Full Results appeared first on IrishCyclingNews.com | Irish Cycling News | IrishCycling.