Olympic champion Remco Evenepoel retains world title in ‘toughest time trial’
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Gold medallist Remco Evenepoel of Belgium gestures on the podium after winning the world time-trial title.
PHOTO: EPA-EFE
ZURICH – Olympic champion Remco Evenepoel retained his world time-trial title in Zurich on Sept 22, surviving a lost chain on the starter’s ramp, as Grace Brown also backed up her Paris gold-medal performance in the women’s event.
Evenepoel triumphed ahead of Italian pair Filippo Ganna in second and Edoardo Affini in third.
The Belgian star matched Ganna on the flat and gained on him in the rolling sections before the latter, a two-time world champion himself, went for broke in the home straight to set up a thrilling finish.
On his gold Olympic champion’s bike, Evenepoel showed deep reserves of nerve and stamina to cling on to the lead over the final section of the 46.1km run along Lake Zurich.
“I felt good at the start physically, then struggled on the hill without quite going too close to the limit,” he said. “But this is the world championships and you have to give everything, it was easily the toughest time trial of my life.”
As well as a broken chain, Evenepoel also started the race without a power meter, a key device which provides riders and teams with crucial information on performance.
“My chain dropped one minute before the start. I took the start and I had no power meter at all, so it was a pure TT on feeling,” he revealed.
Evenepoel won the time trial and road race at the Paris Olympics and he can repeat that double on the world stage on Sept 29.
Should he win the road race in Zurich, it would be his 60th top-level victory at the age of 24, despite a long layoff due to falling over a stone wall into a ravine at the Tour of Lombardy in 2020.
After Evenepoel had described the surfaces of Paris in the harshest terms, the smooth roads of Zurich would have been more suited to the larger, more powerful Ganna, but he finished six seconds behind.
In the women’s race, Brown added the world time-trial title to her Olympic gold to become the first woman to complete the double in the same year.
She finished 16 seconds ahead of Dutchwoman Demi Vollering over the 29.9km course that also ended along Lake Zurich.
“The experience of the Olympics gave me confidence and I said to myself ‘I can be world champion’,” said the Australian.
Vollering was beaten at the Tour de France by just four seconds while defending champion Chloe Dygert of the United States took bronze, 56sec behind the winner.
“We all did the same preparation on the same course so you can’t complain. It’s just how it goes,” said the American. AFP
