Remco Evenepoel's golden spell continues with time trial victory at UCI Road World Championships

Updated 22/09/2024 at 17:12 GMT

Remco Evenepoel followed in the footsteps of Grace Brown to win the Olympic and world individual time trial titles in 2024. The Belgian will now turn his attention to the road race on September 29 as he bids to sweep the men's elite races at the Olympic Games and UCI Road World Championships. To do that, he will have to see off the sensation of the men's peloton: Tadej Pogacar.

Evenepoel wins time trial in Zurich

Remco Evenepoel's golden spell continued as he secured another individual time trial title at the UCI Road World Championships, adding to his two Olympic triumphs at Paris 2024.

The Belgian survived a nervy start after his chain dropped while he was waiting to head down the start ramp, prompting a hasty mechanical intervention, but he was in the green at each time check as he saw off Italy's Filippo Ganna by six seconds in Zurich. Another Italian, Edoardo Affini, claimed the bronze medal.

But Josh Tarling's time trial misery continued as he finished in fourth, just like in Paris, as the Brit missed out on the podium again.

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The 46km Zurich course contained fewer corners than some previous examples, but a climb, followed by an immediate descent, around the midway point challenged riders' abilities to manage their efforts, and ration their energy over the distance.

The first rider down the ramp and into the Oerlikon velodrome was Uganda's Charles Kagimu. Kagimu proceeded to set the early pace, and enjoyed a short spell at the top of the leaderboard. The first serious time was laid down by Canada's Pier-Andre Cote, who beat all those before him at the splits and stopped the clock in 56 minutes dead. He was able to enjoy a nice spell in the lead before Norway's Soren Waerenskjold knocked 18 seconds off.

As Waerenskjold reached the hotseat, the big names took to the course and quickly showed what competitive times looked like. Home favourite Stefan Kung went quickest at the first check, by a single second over Jay Vine, although Vine improved massively in the middle part of the course, especially on the climb, to swing the race back in his favour by 40 seconds. Further up the road Affini was enjoying the TT of his life, going into the lead by 35 seconds.

The really big guns, Evenepoel and Ganna were in a race of their own. The Belgian just about edged it, throughout, with both some distance ahead of everyone else.

'The most difficult time trial of my life' – Evenepoel

Vine, who had been going well and looked set to take the third podium spot, came into the home straight bloodied and bedraggled, having suffered a crash somewhere in the final sector.

A short distance behind the third check found Evenepoel ahead by 19 seconds and looking to be in complete control. Ganna, however, had clearly saved something for the end. He displaced his compatriot Affini at the top of the standings by almost 50 seconds, for an average speed almost 1kph quicker.

As Evenepoel went under the flamme rouge the time he had left to cover the 1000m to the line meant he didn't have much to play with. Nonetheless, in classic Evenepoel style, he knew he had just enough to lift his arms in celebration so the photographers could get the perfect shot.

Meanwhile, Tarling was inconsolable at the finish as he reflected on the latest in a series of what has been, for him, disappointing results.

"To be honest I messed up the whole end of my season," he said. "I let it down from my side. I cracked up after the Olympics, messed up in the Vuelta. It was hard to get back going again. I'm glad this is over."

Evenepoel, in contrast, was in the highest of spirits having taken a third senior rainbow jersey - and a second in the time trial discipline.

As well as the chain malfunction at the start, he set off missing his computerised head unit which would have told him what power numbers he was putting out and given him a guide as to when to push and when he might be able to ease off.

That meant, he said, "it was a pure time trial on the feeling... Without having the power metre it was quite difficult to keep the pace."

Despite the setbacks when he arrived in the final straight he knew he had time to spare: "I saw my time in green and felt like celebrating. It was a pretty good day again."

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