Geraint Thomas pledged to dust himself off for a tilt at the Olympic time trial after an unfortunate crash saw him withdraw from the Tokyo road race.
The Welshman collided with Team GB colleague Tao Geoghegan Hart at the 70km mark of the brutal 230km ride, falling on his right side.
The two-time Olympic champion battled on and rejoined the peloton but called time on his second Games road race on the Fuji International Speedway with 60km remaining.
“It's just disappointing, such a freak thing,” said Thomas.
“Tao slipped on a bit of a metal, a metal ridge along the middle of the road. I was on his wheel with nowhere to go, and just went straight down myself.
“It's disappointing after all the hard work and sacrifice this year.”
Incredible effort in the Tokyo heat for our four riders 🚴@AdamYates7 so close after battling it out in the final sprint for the medals #TeamGB pic.twitter.com/VQGx9DqqF1
— Team GB (@TeamGB) July 24, 2021
Thomas, who narrowly missed out on the top ten in the time trial at Rio 2016, should be well-suited to a rolling 44.2km course on Wednesday
The 2018 Tour De France winner will be joined by Hart as Team GB representatives and knows exactly how he’ll seek a physically and mental reboot.
“At the moment, I don't think I'd say I'm looking forward to Wednesday but it's another chance,” he said.
“I just want to forget about everything tonight, switch off, have dinner and ring Max, my son. That puts it all in perspective.
“I'll get up tomorrow, recover as best I can and give it one last hit.”
Thomas’s team-mate Adam Yates was at the sharp end of one of the most brutal Olympic road race courses in living memory, finishing ninth.
The Bury star was nestled alongside back-to-back Tour De France winner Tadej Pogacar and Wout Van Aert in the chasing group, with Ecuador’s Richard Carapaz breaking away to gold.
Yates made an early move in the final metres of the sprint on the Speedway but watched Van Aert sprint to silver and Pogacar to bronze.
Yates said: “We rode the race how we wanted to. We did the best we could.
“To miss the top ten is quite frustrating but at the end of the day, it's the biggest bike race in the world and one of the toughest races I've done in a long time. It is what it is.”