There's a range of hopefuls for this third time trial contest, Russia, Netherlands and Portugal all feature prominently on the pre-stage list of 10, with Estonia, Switzerland, Great Britain and Georgia all featuring.
Based on the first two rounds, we can likely expect other nations and riders in the Top 10 too.
For a start there is Sri Lanka. Suranga Ranaweera has set the fastest time of all in the first wave.
He has finished a good 36 seconds faster than Rigoberto Uran. who puts Colombia into the mix.
Let's move to Rwanda. Bonaventure Uwizeyimana was 3rd fastest at the first checkpoint, but couldn't quite maintain that fast start, being now 5th at the finish
Monsalve was 4th at the first check, and also 4th at the finish, solid ride from the Venezuelan
The improver over the ride then was Tanel Kangert. 3rd at the finish right now.
Nelson Oliveira holds the final qualifying spot right now with 6th, not his best ride
Specialists like Yatsevich, Lammertink and Tanfield found the course to be too hard for them.
Dillier fared even worse, as we can look at the standings after this first wave.
Rein Taaramäe is the big name in this field, for this course, and he immediately sets the fastest time early on
And actually, only 3 of the early starts make the Top 10 at the first checkpoint now:
Tao Geoghegan Hart is 2nd fastest, a position he will make his own as the ride goes on
Martijn Keizer has to deliver for the Netherlands, so an early 3rd is good, although he will not be as fast as Ranaweera by the 2nd checkpoint
Standings at the 2nd check:
Ki Ho Choi currently holding 5th, up from 6th
Timofey Kritskiy has 6th place, having started 4th. That would be enough for Russia though.
Which leaves a less than ideal position for Colombia. Egan Bernal is out now, they have two riders running in the Top 8, but neither in the Top 6.
Third checkpoint shows that Kritskiy holds a 19 second advantage over Uran, which ought to be enough
Others out on the course in this second wave:
Stefan Kung is on his way to a strong finish, that will at least give him a 9th place for the day
Such is the nature of the course, with the same hill three times, there's is a lot of hidden chaos of riders being near each other. Giorgi Nareklishvili (Georgia) and Jacob Salcone (Fiji) were next to each other at one point, but riding to very different pacing strategies.
Nareklishvili had been 10th at the first check, but faded to 18th at the finish. While Salcone went from being 17th, to improving all the way up to 12th.
11th place was a surprisingly strong ride by Peter Sagan.
As well as Venezuela and Colombia, Ecuador were in this race too. Carapaz looked on course for a Top 15, but didn't quite get it on the line
Instead the final section did see Ivo Oliveira take a Top 15 place instead
At the end with Keizer as a not do distant carrot, Taaramäe comes to the line with a time of 56'16 - that's one second faster than Taylor Phinney went in Heat 1!
No final changes to the Top 6, with Great Britain, Sri Lanka, Hong Kong, Netherlands and Russia joining Estonia in qualifying. Colombia will be disappointed to miss out - looking at it on paper, Uran would certainly have hoped to be faster than Ranaweera. Superb ride by the Sri Lankan then, to not just qualify for the Olympic final, but take 3rd place on the day!
