Remco Evenpoel dominated the elite men’s time-trial at the World Championships in Montréal, blasting round the 39.2km course almost a minute faster than his nearest rival.
The Belgian becomes the first man to win the world time-trial title in four consecutive years, after wins in Glasgow, Zürich and Kigali.
Evenepoel led through every time-check in one of his most dominant time-trial performances. Italy’s Filippo Ganna finished runner-up, 57 seconds down, while 19-year-old Frenchman Paul Seixas impressed by taking third, 1:13 down on Evenepoel.
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With most of the expected favourites yet to come through the finish-line, it was Seixas who was in the hot-seat with a time of 46:06. It appeared that Sweden’s Jakob Söderqvist would be able to overhaul the young Frenchman before the Lidl-Trek man crashed on a left-hander towards the end of his run.
Ganna was way down early on but improved through his ride, beating Seixas by 16 seconds.
No-one, however, was in the same universe as Evenepoel on the flat and technical course, which featured tough climb in the final kilometre. He set a blistering time of 44:53 to claim the rainbow jersey once more, with an average speed of 52.4km/h.
“It’s amazing. It was obviously the goal to come and win here for the fourth time in a row. It was a big motivation,” Evenepoel said after crossing the line.
“I just have to thank the whole team around me again for the preparation. I have to thank Specialized for all the new material that they made with me. It was a pretty fast one today. I’m very happy with the feeling and the cornering. It was a very demanding course with a technical start and finish and a power part in the middle.”
On such a long time-trial, pacing the effort was all important. Evenepoel was concerned that he many have overdone the first section, holding a nine second lead over Söderqvist.
However, the Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe man said that his extremely good form allowed him to keep pushing all the way to the line.
“I thought at the first intermediate that I kind of over-paced, but I just could keep pushing,” he said, before hinting at his confidence ahead of the road race next week.
“I must say that I’ve just had a wonderful feeling all day. It’s a pretty good start of the Worlds.”
“I think there’s quite some time to rest out now and enjoy this special one. Full focus on Sunday from Tuesday on.”
(Image credit: Getty Images)
How it Happened
The elite men’s time trial World Championship took place on the same 39.2km course as the elite women’s. A flat course with a sting in the tail, the riders would take in part of the Circuit Gilles Villenueve race track, a series of tricky 90-degree corners and some straight, power sections.
Germany’s Jasha Sütterlin set the early benchmark time, fending off the initial challenge of the likes of South African Byron Munton and Portuguese Nelson Oliveira. Shortly after Sütterlin’s effort, Denmark’s Kasper Asgreen became the first man under 47 minutes, setting a time that would see him finish inside the top-10. However, the main favourites for the rainbow jersey had now left the start ramp.
French sensation Paul Seixas, one of the favourites for the road race, was riding impressively. He was setting fastest times through several intermediates in his first competitive time-trial of this length in the elite category.
One of the outsiders for the podium, Swedish rider Jakob Söderqvist set a strong time at the first check and edged also ahead of Seixas at the second check.
Evenepoel was the only man to beat the time of Söderqvist at the first check, putting nine seconds into the former under-23 world champion.
It was clear that several expected challengers, the likes of Stefan Küng and Ethan Hayter, were far short of what was required to beat the Belgian. All were more than 20 seconds down on Evenepoel after just 10km. Each would go on to lose more time at each intermediate.
Before the reigning champion cruised through, Söderqvist was leading at the second check as well, five seconds ahead of Seixas. The Swede also held that exact advantage on the third check after 29km.
Callum Thornley led the British charge, finishing just inside the top-10 with a time of 46:55.
Seixas was the first man to beat Asgreen, defeating the EF Education First-EasyPost rider by 35 seconds in a ride that will put others hoping to wear rainbows next Sunday on notice.
As Evenepoel shot past the second intermediate check, it was clear that nobody would come close to the best time-triallist in the world as he extended his lead over Söderqvist by another 25 seconds. Ganna had improved at the second check to close in on the podium, but the 2020 and 2021 titlist was still 40 seconds back on Evenepoel.
With less than 3km of his race to ride, Söderqvist slid out on one of the many 90-degree corners. He quickly returned to his bike, but limped over the line. The crash had cost him a potential podium spot. He finished 13 seconds down on Seixas, with Brandon McNulty also edging ahead of him.
Ganna had progressed again to narrowly beat Söderqvist’s time at the third timing check at 29km. Flying through shortly after, Evenepoel stretched his lead further to 48 seconds.
The effort clear on his face, Ganna overhauled Seixas for second-place by 15 seconds, but the former champion was well shy of modern cycling’s time-trialling great.
Evenepoel negotiated the final spaghetti-like series of corners with ease, powering on to comfortably defend his title, even having the time and presence of mind to sit up in celebration.
(Image credit: Getty Images)
Results
World Championships elite men’s time-trial: Montréal > Montréal (39.2km)
1. Remco Evenepoel, Belgium in 44:53
2. Filippo Ganna, Italy, +57s
3. Paul Seixas, France, +1:13
4. Brandon McNulty, USA, +1:25
5. Jakob Söderqvist, Sweden, +1:26
6. Isaac del Toro, Mexico, +1:38
7. Stefan Küng, Switzerland, +1:44
8. Kasper Asgreen, Denmark, +1:48
9. Daan Hoole, Netherlands, +2:02
10. Callum Thornley, Great Britain, +2:02
