Dygert, Tarling among favourites for Olympic gold on streets of Paris

Chloe Dygert and Josh Tarling will be among the favourites racing past chic Parisian cafes and historic monuments in the battle for gold in the Olympic road cycling time trials on Saturday.

Cycling is a hugely popular sport in France and hundreds of thousands of spectators are expected to line the river, bridges and celebrated avenues in the heart of the capital.

Contestants such as the American Dygert, in the women's event, and Briton Tarling, in the men's, will embark from a ramp at the Esplanade des Invalides at one-minute intervals.

From there they will speed along a notably flat route through the upscale Saint Germain neighbourhood out to Bastille and the Bois de Vincennes park beyond it, and then back again to finish on the Pont Alexandre III.

The individual time trials for men and women will be run along the same 32.4km route in a first for a major international tournament.

The time trial world champion Dygert called it "a power course" and with a five-kilometre (3.1 miles) straight run-in to the finish the big rollers will be at an advantage.

"I'm feeling good but I can't put the Games on a pedestal or I won't be able to perform. I see Paris as a race," the 27-year-old said.

Her key rivals will be Australia's Grace Brown and Dutch rider Ellen van Dijk.

After that it will be the men's turn.

As with the women's race, there are three clear favourites in a discipline that often follows the statistics, with Tarling, former two-time world champion Filippo Ganna of Italy and the Belgian Remco Evenepoel.

The 20-year-old Tarling said he expected to win, as the world championships bronze medallist sets his sights on Britain's first gold of the Paris Games.

"It's exciting and I want to see what I can do," said Tarling, who unlike his two rivals did not compete at the Tour de France, which only recently finished.

The 2022 road race world champion Evenepoel is current time trial world champion, and came third at the Tour de France.

Evenepoel had been expected to win the final-day time trial at the Tour, but appeared to take his foot off the gas.

"There are two more important races coming up for me," said the Belgian last Sunday. "I wasn't going to risk my life on a dangerous course."

Evenepoel will take on both races in Paris with Saturday's time trial his best bet, but if anyone can do the double, it appears to be him.

The road races will be contested around the capital the following weekend.