Olympic champion Remco Evenepoel successfully defended his world time trial title in Zurich on Sunday, surviving a lost chain on the starters ramp, as Grace Brown also backed up her Paris gold medal performance in the women’s event.
Evenepoel triumphed ahead of Italian pair Filippo Ganna in second and Edoardo Affini in third.
Belgian star Evenepoel matched Ganna on the flat and gained on him in the rolling sections before the Italian, a double world champion himself, went for broke in the home straight to set up a thrilling finish.
On his gold Olympic champion’s bike, Evenepoel showed deep reserves of nerve and stamina to cling onto the lead over the final section of the 46.1km run along Lake Zurich.
“I felt good at the start physically, then struggled on the hill without quite going too close to the limit,” he said.
“But this is the world championships and you have to give everything, it was easily the toughest time trial of my life.”
As well as a broken chain, Evenepoel also started the race without a power meter, a key device which provides riders and teams with crucial information on performance.
“My chain dropped one minute before the start. I took the start and I had no power meter at all, so it was a pure TT on feeling,” he revealed.
Evenepoel won both the time trial and road race at the Paris Olympics — next Sunday he can repeat that in Zurich on the world stage.
“Tadej Pogacar is favourite but I came here for the title and I’ll be trying for that,” said the Belgian.
Should he win next Sunday it would be a 60th top level victory at the age of 24, despite a long lay-off due to falling over a stone wall into a ravine at the Tour of Lombardy four years ago.
After Evenepoel had described the surfaces of Paris in the harshest terms, the smooth roads of Zurich would have been more suited to the larger, more powerful Ganna, but he finished six seconds behind.
An unheralded rider until this season but European time-trial champion just a few weeks ago, Affini was again celebrating after he flew under the radar while rivals suffered a series of mishaps.
Australia’s Jay Vine finished covered in blood when a fall ended his hopes of bronze, but he showed great courage by clambering back into the saddle.
Britain’s Josh Tarling was a disappointing fourth while Primoz Roglic, fresh from a fourth Vuelta a Espana triumph, wilted badly.
Brown gets gold again
Brown added the world time trial title to her Olympic gold to become the first woman to complete the double in the same year.
Brown finished 16sec ahead of Demi Vollering over the 29.9km course that also ended along Lake Zurich.
“The experience of the Olympics gave me confidence and I said to myself ‘I can be world champion’,” said the Australian.
Vollering was beaten at the Tour de France by just four seconds while defending champion Chloe Dygert of the United States took bronze, 56sec behind the winner.
“We all did the same preparation on the same course so you can’t complain. It’s just how it goes,” said the American.
