The men's time trial was one of 5 track cycling

Cycling

Cycling, also called bicycling or biking, is the use of bicycles for transport, recreation, or for sport. Persons engaged in cycling are cyclists or bicyclists...

 events on the Cycling at the 1896 Summer Olympics

Cycling at the 1896 Summer Olympics

At the 1896 Summer Olympics, six cycling events were contested at the Neo Phaliron Velodrome. They were organized and prepared by the Sub-Committee for Cycling. Events were held on 8 April, 11 April, 12 April and 13 April 1896...

 programme. It was the fourth event on the cycling schedule and was held on 11 April. The first time trial competition was the only time that Olympic time trials were held over the distance of kilometres; when the event returned to the programme at the 1928 Summer Olympics

1928 Summer Olympics

The 1928 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the IX Olympiad, was an international multi-sport event which was celebrated in 1928 in Amsterdam, Netherlands. Amsterdam had bid for the 1920 and 1924 Olympic Games, but had to give way to war-victim Antwerp, Belgium, and Pierre de...

the distance was set at 1 kilometre.

Results

The time trial race was once around the track, or one-third of a kilometre. It was held on 11 April and eight cyclists competed. Masson won his third race of the day, with Schmal and Nikolopoulos tying for second place and having to compete in a race-off for the second position.

Place	Athlete	Time
1		24.0 s
2		26.0 s
		26.0 s
4		26.2 s
5		27.0 s
		27.0 s
		27.0 s
8		27.2 s

Race-off

Place	Athlete	Time
1		25.4 s
2		26.6 s

In this race, Nikolopoulos improved upon his time from the first round, winning the race for an overall second place finish. Schmal was slower in this race than he had been in the first one.