Just for a couple of minutes, Michael Rogers was able to sit on the Olympic road cycling time trial throne.
The Australian rode impressively on Wednesday at Hampton Court near London to place sixth in the 44km time trial.
His Sky team-mates Brad Wiggins and Chris Froome won gold and bronze respectively for Great Britain, while German Tony Martin was second.
In a fittingly theatrical touch, the riders with the three best progressive times were installed on thrones outside Hampton Court Palace, a location steeped in British royal history.
When he finished his solo ride Rogers had the fastest time of 52 minutes 51.39 seconds, so for a couple of minutes he was "king".
"Certainly it's nice to lead the race for a little bit, it would have been nice to keep sitting there," Rogers said.
He had nothng but praise for the medallists, particularly Wiggins, who he helped to win the Tour de France last month.
"At the end of the day the best riders won," said Rogers, Australia's sole entrant after Cadel Evans withdrew.
"I've been with Bradley day-in day-out this year and I've never seen an athlete work at that level.
"Hats off to Tony who broke his wrist a month back in the Tour de France - he laboured through."
Rogers is a three-time world time trial champion and could also yet win a retrospective bronze medal from the 2004 Athens Games following American winner Tyler Hamilton admission of doping.
This was Rogers' fourth Olympics and while he is yet to officially win a medal, the 32-year-old has always been consistent.
After several months of riding shotgun for the Sky team, including a key role in Wiggins' Tour de France win, Rogers relished the chance to do something for himself.
"We came up with a good plan and it kind of dawned on me at the moment that this was why I was here," he said of Wednesday night's meeting with Australian team staff.
"I had been in almost limbo preparing for it and then all of a sudden it clicked in my mind to make that conversion into race mode that I was racing for myself.
"I still take a lot of pride in putting the Australian jersey on ... today was just as emotional a ride as the first one was in Sydney."
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