For Enzo Hincapie, the final 600 metres of the junior men’s World Championships time trial could not end soon enough.
“I’m pretty dead right now,” the American said after finishing 12th in Montréal on Tuesday. “That was a pretty long 26 minutes. Probably the longest 600 meters of my life from that corner to the finish, so I’m glad that’s over.”
Hincapie finished 56 seconds behind Spain’s Benjamín Noval, who won the rainbow jersey with a six-second lead over Belgium’s Vic de Smet. Denmark’s Malthe Risbjerg completed the podium, 16 seconds off Noval’s time.
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There was a familiar family connection between the winner and the American. Hincapie’s father, George, and Noval’s father, also Benjamín, spent four seasons as teammates at US Postal and Discovery Channel. Their sons are now establishing themselves on the world stage, with Enzo making his second Road World Championships appearance after racing in Kigali last year.
Twelfth was short of the result Hincapie had wanted, but he was already looking towards another opportunity.
“I obviously wanted to fight for a medal in the time trial, but the legs weren’t there at all today,” he said.
“I’m not really gonna let that bring me down. I’ve just got one more race to go and that’s my main target, so we’ll see how I feel on Thursday.”
The course demanded careful pacing, taking riders through a somewhat technical opening and a flatter middle section before an uphill finish. Hincapie suspected he might have spent too much energy early on.
“The first part felt a bit more sneaky than I thought to be honest,” Hincapie said. “You don’t really feel the effort because you have the race adrenaline and then you get to kind of coast for a bit in the corners.”
But by the closing stages, the effort had caught up with him. By the time he turned into the uphill finishing straight, he didn’t even look up.
“I just wanted to not see how far it was and see how hard I could go to the finish and not think about where I really was,” he commented.
Enzo has already collected five U.S. junior national titles across road racing and time trialling. And Tuesday’s disappointment has not diminished his interest in racing against the clock.
“I really like the time trial. I think it’s really humbling,” he said. “I think it’s good for you to get out there and, and test your limits and learn more about yourself. I don’t want limit myself in disciplines. I want to see how good I can get in each discipline.”
The question about what he had learned this time, however, came a bit too soon after the finish.
“I’ll have to reflect when I get back to the hotel,” he said.
The reflection will be short, however, as his next target is just two days away.
Thursday’s road race offers terrain he has become familiar with through watching the Grand Prix de Montréal with his family each year. His father raced that event a few times in his time too, and was able to offer his son some insights.
Hincapie expects that it’ll be a hard race and one that requires constant attention.
“I don’t think you should really be sleeping at all at, at any point in that race,” he said. “It’s all about being in the right position and hitting the climbs in a good spot.
“I’m looking forward to it. It’s going to be a long race [and] a lot of times up the climb, so just git to keep fighting.”
For the road race, Hincapie will be joined by Sylvan Garrelts, Cormac Nagle, Rowan Nistal and Kashus Adamski, who finished 13th in the time trial.
The junior men’s road race takes place on Thursday, September 24, starting at 1:30 p.m. EDT, and covers 134 kilometres (83 miles) with 2,690 metres (8825) of elevation gain.
