Rohan Dennis takes men's time trial gold medal at Commonwealth Games as Geraint Thomas crashes

Rohan Dennis stormed to the gold medal in the men's time trial at the Commonwealth Games, the Australian beating Fred Wright from England into second and Geraint Thomas, who had crashed early on in the race, into third.

Wright set off on his time trial two hours earlier than Geraint Thomas and Rohan Dennis, and navigated the 37 kilometre course around Wolverhampton in 46-47. The Englishman held the provisional gold medal for an extended period of the day until Dennis eventually beat set his time of  46-21. 

The only person to challenge Wright of the first wave of runners was Australian Lucas Plapp. He started his ride two minutes before Wright, and actually started stronger than the Englishman going through the first checkpoint at 8.9km four seconds quicker, but failed to keep riding at the same intensity and suffered a mechanical issue later on in the race. 

He eventually lost two minutes to Wright, meaning they crossed the line together. 

Wales' Geraint Thomas, Australia's Rohan Dennis and England's Dan Bigham were still to make their way around the course, though, with the trio the final riders to begin their attempts. Bigham crossed the first checkpoint fastest of all riders, but Rohan Dennis soon blew his time out of the water, passing it 30 seconds quicker.

While hunting for a spot on the podium, Bigham then suffered a heavy crash into a barrier after taking the turn with too much pace. Forced to change his bike, Bigham was soon overtaken by Dennis and eventually came home in 12th. 

Meanwhile, Thomas' TT had started in disaster. Eager to set an early marker the Welshman attacked the sixth turn too quickly, causing him to ride over the foot of one of the barriers and crash. When he passed through the first checkpoint he was half a minute down on Dennis, and looked unlikely to bring the deficit down by much more. 

The time difference between the two maintained at the 30-second mark over the next two checkpoints, with Dennis finishing the time trial 32 seconds quicker than Thomas to win the first Commonwealth Games gold medal of his career. 

Wright's time would prove two seconds faster two seconds faster than the Welshman's to allow him to hold onto second place.

Aaron Gate ultimately came home in fourth, the New Zealander managing to beat Plapp's 48-47 with a time of 48-43. 

Scotsman John Archibald came sixth, Welshman Owain Doull finished in seventh, while Northern Ireland's Darren Rafferty secured eight position. Tom Sexton of New Zealand and Andreas Miltiadis of Cyprus rounded out the top ten. 

Commonwealth Games men's time trial results

1. Rohan Dennis (Aus), in 46-21
2. Fred Wright (Eng), at 26s
3. Geraint Thomas (Wal), at 28s
4. Aaron Gate (NZl), at 2-22
5. Lucas Plapp (Aus), at 2-26
6. John Archibald (Sco), at 2-33
7. Owain Doull (Wal), at 2-44
8. Darren Rafferty (NIr), at 2-49
9. Tom Sexton (NZl), at 3-20
10. Andreas Miltiadis (Cyp), at 3-29