It doesn’t happen often in a time trial, but at the end of the 46.1-kilometre World Championship course in Zurich, Remco Evenepoel celebrated victory upright, waggling his fingers in the air.
And why not? For the second time on Sunday, a gold-coated TT bike crossed the line first to seal an historic Olympic-World double.
The young Belgian was the top favourite as reigning champion and Olympic gold medalist, but the huge target on his back did not faze the already-seasoned winner. There was a brief scare in the start house when his chain dropped off the ring inside a minute before his start time, but Evenepoel was fastest at every check to finish six seconds ahead of a resurgent Filippo Ganna (Italy), with Edoardo Affini joining his compatriot on the podium for his first ever World Championship medal.
- Pier-André Côté (Canada) was only the tenth rider to take on the dynamic 46.1-kilometre course, and after almost an hour in the saddle, the Quebecois all-rounder got to spend a good chunk of time in the hot seat as rivals came and went. Søren Wærenskjold (Norway) was the first to move the bar 35 minutes later, and for a long while, new best times came thick and fast.
- Young American Magnus Sheffield had a great run among the outside contenders in the last 25 starters, but his effort was at least partially eclipsed by newly crowned European champion Affini, who spent about as long in the hot seat as Côté did before him.
- A surprise podium contender, who perhaps should not have been a surprise at all, was former Australian national champion Jay Vine whose markers became a gauge for all who came after him.
- Stefan Küng (Switzerland) was next to go through the first time check, and it was a bad sign for the TT specialist as he went only a second faster than the Australian who had not long ago won the mountains classification at the Vuelta, and that was before they’d done any sort of climbing. By the second time check, Küng was a shade under 40 seconds slower than Vine, and though the long and flat stretch up the edge of the lake was still to come, the writing was on the wall for the home favourite.
- The podium was already taking shape at the first timing point 12.5 km out of Zurich, with times falling as expected: Küng, Joshua Tarling (Great Britain), Ganna, and then Evenepoel all chipping a few seconds off their nearest rival.
- The climb that came just past the halfway point was the major hurdle that stood in the way of many, weighing in at 2.4 km with an average of 4.9%, and a 600-metre ramp of 8.5% in the middle. The next timing point at the top further ironed out the standings, Küng and Tarling dropping away, as Vine and Affini moved up, and Evenepoel remained on top, though still by a slim margin over Ganna who was about to hit much more favourable terrain.
- Disaster struck in the battle for bronze on the fast descent that followed as Vine crashed pretty hard. It was a cruel twist of fate for the Australian whose season has already been defined by a horror crash in the spring, though in this instance his skinsuit came worst off and he was able to finish the time trial.
- Tension mounted in the latter half of the course for the last remaining contenders as Ganna entered the sector best-suited to him, but Evenepoel seemed to be flying.
- The 24-year-old increased his buffer to 19 seconds at the last intermediate time check, but began to fade in the closing kilometres, even his usually steady position looking a little ragged in the finishing straight.
- It wasn’t obvious which way it would go as Evenepoel entered the final kilometre, but in the last hundred metres or so, the reigning champion had just enough in hand to be certain of the top step, allowing him to sit upright as he crossed the line to celebrate a successful title defense.
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Quotes of the day
Evenepoel is no stranger to winner’s interviews at this point, and he was ready with an assured answer to thoroughly describe his race on being asked about his golden summer.
It took quite some time for me to feel good again [after the Olympics], to find the good shape, but yeah, right on time. It was a very tough day for me, my chain dropped one minute before the start … and I had no power meter at all since the start, so it was a pure time trial on the feeling … and without having the power meter it was pretty difficult to keep the pace in the last five kilometres. But in a TT, especially in a championship, it doesn’t matter what the time gap is – I saw my time in green and I felt like celebrating, so a pretty good day again.”
Stefan Küng was one of the home favourites in Zurich, along with Stefan Bissegger, but the writing was on the wall early and the 30-year-old specialist – and recent Vuelta a España stage winner – finished eighth.
I had goosebumps at the start, for sure. It was amazing to feel the support from the public. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to find the rhythm, to find the flow. It was really tough and I was struggling from the beginning of the climb, I couldn’t switch the rhythm how I wanted to, and so it was a hard and long one in the end.”
Brief analysis
- A closer look at the split times show that Evenepoel was in fact only the fourth fastest in the final 9.6-kilometre sector after T3. Ganna was fastest, Affini second, while 2022 world champion Tobias Foss (Norway) was third – seventh at the finish – and Kasper Asgreen (Denmark) fifth – sixth at the finish. It would make sense for Evenepoel to have taken most time between the first two (of three) time checks which incorporated the climb, but he was only two seconds faster than Ganna on that sector. It turns out his biggest gain – of 10 seconds – was made on the 10-kilometre stretch between T2 and T3 which was most technical and predominantly downhill.
- Ganna’s second place marks something of a return to form for the two-time world champion who has had a year of ups and downs, mostly trending in the latter direction, by his standards at least. The 28-year-old Italian downplayed his own prospects in the build-up to the World Championship time trial – “There’s only one favourite and we’ll see how much time he beats us by,” he told media after doing a course recon on Saturday – but while defeat by six seconds may sting, his second silver medal of the summer ought to boost morale in a late season period plagued by fatigue.
- It almost fell apart at the first hurdle for Evenepoel, as shortly after Ganna had rolled off the ramp, the Belgian was shown watching over a team mechanic who was frantically trying to remount the chain to his rider’s dinner-plate chainring. Evenepoel had been forced to dismount after back-pedalling on the start line – don’t do this at home, kids! – resulted in a dropped chain, and they had a hard time getting it back in place. The rider himself looked like he was trying to keep his nerves in check, but with a narrow two-minute window to work with, he was understandably on edge; if he’d been unable to start on time, the clock would have begun without him. They got it done, though, and Evenepoel was underway, mercifully without having to swap his gold bike for a boring team-edition model.
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