'I'm probably the worst bike handler out there': Taylor Knibb crashes four times in Olympics time trial

Despite crashing four times in a rain-soaked Paris Olympics time trial, Taylor Knibb was surprisingly jolly when she described herself as "probably the worst bike handler" in the field. 

The American, better known for her triathlon career, finished 19th out of 34 riders on Saturday, in what was only her third-ever time trial event. 

After the race, Knibb walked through the media zone with a towel around her shoulders, two bandaged knees, and an unexpected smile on her face. 

How had she found it? "It was an experience," the 26-year-old told Cycling Weekly. "The first third was great. The middle one, that's where it all went wrong. And then the third one it was more survival than anything else. I was fully blind, my Garmin fell off on the first one. I'm like, 'Well, here we go!'"

Rain fell throughout the day in the French capital, making the already bumpy roads even more treacherous to navigate. 

Knibb's first crash came around the 14km mark, on the same roundabout where Denmark's Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig hit the floor moments before. The big screens by the finish line on Pont Alexandre III then kept cutting back to the American, each time the victim of a different tumble. 

Even Knibb herself was unsure about how many times she crashed during her effort. "We can count them," she said. "Number one, I went around the roundabout, I got up, went into the motorbike immediately. Is that one or two [crashes]? I went around on a turn, then I think I came down a fourth time, I guess, and then I changed my bike." 

"On the first one, my left brake was gone, back brake wasn't really working. So whenever I'd go into a turn, it would kind of fishtail. Then at that point, I was like, 'This isn't safe for me to ride.' I was scared to stop, but you have to slow down, I guess." 

Knibb then went on to reveal some advice her coach had given her, which, in hindsight, she found "very ironic".

"He said, 'Taylor, you do not want to try and go around the corner too fast and end up falling down, because that will make you go slower, obviously.' So I didn't really heed his advice super, super well," she laughed. "But you get up and you keep going."

The American will now take that attitude into Wednesday's triathlon, an event for which she is among the favourites. Pointing down at her bloodied leg, she smiled and said: "This will test out the water quality [of the Seine].

"Regardless of what happened today, hopefully I'll continue the sport [of road cycling]. But who knows, I might not be allowed back."