By Emmerson Campbell in Birmingham, England
An early crash in yesterday’s men’s individual Time Trial at these ongoing Commonwealth Games here in England derailed any chance of Christopher Griffith making his mark in his Games debut.
Griffith was one of several riders who crashed on the ‘very technical’ 37km course and finished 51st out of 54 starters in 1:04:38.91.
Shaun Green, Griffith’s coach on the sojourn, explained, “He crashed on the exit to the park and he was not the only person to crash, in fact Geraint Thomas crashed on a very technical course. Ideally, he would have gone a bit closer to the hour but instead he went to 1:04.”
The event started at Wolverhampton’s West Park. From there, the wheelsmen raced around the streets of Wolverhampton, Dudley, and South Staffs before returning to the point of departure.
Each rider set off one minute apart, allowing them to fully focus on achieving their fastest possible time without trying to one-up their competitors’ position or hit traffic.
Green added “His performance was a bit under par but it was fairly due to the early crash. When you come to a Time Trial on a road bike against these elite riders who have all the high end equipment it is really hard to go up against.”
Australia’s Rohan Dennis claimed victory in the event as Thomas a Tour De France winner lost his gold medal hopes in an early crash.
Dennis and Thomas started as the major pre-race favourites and it was Dennis, two-time world champion and silver medallist at the 2014 Commonwealth Games, who prevailed.
Dennis clocked 48:21 on the course while England’s Fred Wright claimed the silver medal 26 seconds behind. Thomas picked himself up to take bronze for Wales two seconds after Wright.
Griffith will now turn his attention to the road race on Sunday.
