The Golden Bay rider finished 19th of 37 riders, 4m 14s behind runaway winner Bradley Wiggins, the Tour de France champion. It capped a massive week where Bauer rode brilliantly in the road race to finish 10th.
"I hope I did New Zealand proud," Bauer, 27, said. "I gave it my all and thoroughly enjoyed it. It's been the biggest honour I've ever had, to be selected to ride for my country and bear the weight of cycling's expectations back home.
"It's what I've always wanted to do and the Olympics are the pinnacle. The whole experience has been over and above anything I've ever experienced before. It's been huge."
Bauer's parents, Hans and Caroline, missed his outstanding road race to attend a relative's wedding in Germany. They were in the huge crowds outside Hampton Court Palace, the former digs of Henry VIII.
"A clash of priorities there," Bauer joked. "It's a big trip for them so it was nice for them to be there."
The Bauers also got to see New Zealand come painfully close to securing their third medal of the Games, when Linda Villumsen missed by 1.83s in her 29km time trial.
The race was comfortably won by defending champion Kristin Armstrong, with world champion Judith Arndt second. Villumsen, who passed through the first and second time checks in second place, couldn't match their blistering pace over the final third of the course and, painfully, slipped just behind Russian Olga Zabelinskaya.
Villumsen was numbed by the result, as was Bauer.
"I'm disappointed for her, but proud of her at the same time," Bauer said. "I've been working with her for the past week and a half - eating with her, training with her, spending a lot of time with her and she's put absolutely everything into this.
"It's disappointing to miss out on a medal by a very small margin. I'm really sorry for her, but really proud."
Villumsen said her legs started to go with about 2km to go; Bauer's problems were more to do with a concentration error.
"I lost focus at the 10 or 15km mark," Bauer said. "There was a big right-hand corner and I had my head down, came in at 55km/h and thought it was a roundabout and I was going straight through.
"I don't know how I kept the bike upright and got around it, but I did."
The loss of speed and the energy expended to get back up to pace cost Bauer a lot of time and probably up to five places, but this was a day that was destined to belong to Wiggins.
Bauer will be 31, at or nearing his peak, by the time Rio de Janeiro rolls around.
"She's a long way from here ... but I wouldn't pass up another opportunity to do it all again."
