Ben Wiggins arrived at the UCI Road World Championships aiming for gold. But he left the men’s under-23 time trial outside the top 10, struggling to understand how a ride that had felt so strong could deliver so little.
The British rider finished 11th, one minute and seven seconds behind the Netherlands’ Ryan Gal, missing both the podium he had expected to challenge for as well as a top-10 placing.
“I said I wanted to come here and go for gold or at least, at the very least, a medal,” Wiggins said shortly after finishing.
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“I’m very surprised, especially with the performance I’ve put in there.”
As he stood addressing the media mere minutes after his finish, he was scrolling through the pages of his cycling computer, in disbelief.
”I’ve done some of my best numbers ever. Whether they’re true, I don’t know,” he said. “Yeah, to be honest, I have no idea [what happened].”
Looking at his screen, Wiggins reported an average power of 440 watts – a figure he would normally expect to put him among the top contenders at this level.
He watched the podium finalise on a TV in the media tent.
Gal in first. Nicolas Milesi (Italy) in second. Héctor Álvarez third.
Perhaps there had been one indication that the ride was not unfolding as he expected, the 21-year-old said, thinking out loud.
“You know, on the flat sections, I just felt like I was maybe a [kilometre] an hour or two off from where I’d want to be…so kind of across the whole course really,” he said. “I don’t know why that is.”
He wondered whether changing conditions might have played a part, having noticed strong results from some earlier starters. But he offered no firm explanation.
“This isn’t me making excuses,” he said. “I’m just pointing out, I don’t know.”
“I’m a bit lost for words right now.”
Wiggins started taking cycling seriously relatively late, at 16, but soon demonstrated his promising. In 2023, he won junior time trial silver in Stirling behind Australia’s Oscar Chamberlain, a performance that helped establish his credentials beyond his famous surname.
He loves the time trial discipline and is not planning on giving it up any time soon, no matter the setback.
“This is a discipline I’m really passionate about, and I’m never going put it away,” he said. “Back to the drawing board and we’ll go again soon.”
When asked to elaborate, Wiggins said his first task will be to properly digest and analyse the performance, then help his British teammates in Friday’s road race.
The European time trial follows in a couple of weeks, offering another chance before the end of his season.
“[The time trial] just doesn’t lie. The best guy wins on the day most of the time, so I like that,” he said, even if that means disappointment at times.
“There’s a lot more to [time trialing] than just legs and numbers and things as I’ve learned today. It’s something I want to keep working on. I know what I am capable of.”
