photo credits @ UCI
Today’s UCI Road World Championships saw Belgium’s Remco Evenepoel win the Men Elite individual time trial (ITT).
Racing on a golden bike, Evenepoel impressed from the start of the 46.1km Men Elite ITT, leading the way from the first intermediate (km 12.5), all the way to the finish
Already silver medallist behind the Belgian at last year’s UCI Worlds and this summer at the Olympic Games, Italy’s Filippo Ganna took 2nd place again (+6’’) and claimed his fifth medal in the Men Elite ITT of the UCI Road World Championships. His countryman Edoardo Affini completed the podium (+54’’).
“It’s crazy”, Evenepoel said before adding, “maybe the most difficult time trial of my life”.
“My chain dropped one minute before the start,” the Belgian winner explained. “Then I took the start and I had no power meter at all. So it was a pure time trial on the feeling and I was struggling in the last 2-3 kilometers. I think I pushed quite hard on the second little kick and I went quite all out on the downhill as well. Without the power meter, of course, it was pretty difficult to keep the pace in the last 5 kilometers but things like that happened and in the end we won, that’s the most important.
The 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 could enjoy 35 minutes 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 favorite 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 favor by 40 seconds. Further up the road, Edoardo Affini was enjoying the TT of his life, going into the lead by 35 seconds.
The really big guns, Remco Evenepoel and Filippo Ganna were in a race of their own. The Belgian just about edged it, throughout, with both some distance ahead of everyone else.
Jay 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 saved something for the end. He displaced his compatriot Affini at the top of the standings by almost 50 seconds, for an average speed of 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.
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.
The 20-year-old 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 and 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 computerized 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 meter 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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