After stressful start Remco Evenepoel repeats as time trial world champion

There was the whiff of panic in the start house for Remco Evenepoel at the UCI Road World Championships in Zürich on Sunday, but the Belgian successfully defended his time trial rainbow jersey. He adds the 2024 chrono title to his Paris Olympic Games time trial gold medal. Filippo Ganna and Edoardo Affini gave Italy two chaps on the podium. Evenepoel’s feat of Olympic Games and Worlds titles parallels that of Grace Brown’s. Canadian Pier-André Côté was on the hot seat with 56:00 early in the day and placed 19th.

The Course

The elite men and women shared the final 25 km of the chaps’ 46.1-km route. The men started in north Zürich and dipped south, parallel with the flat finish on the other side of the hills. Linking up with the women’s course in Monchaltorf, the men headed south where they met the 2.5-km Uetikon a See hill before running along the east side of the Zürichsee. There were three intermediate time checks at the 12.5, 26.6 and 36.7 km marks.

The Canadian contingent was national chrono champion Pier-André Côté and Derek Gee.

Côté was the early leader with intermediate times of 14:51, 34:15, 45:54 and a finish of 56:00.

As he sat and waited, Côté’s best times fell. Gee was 19 seconds slower than his compatriot at Time Check 2 and 12 seconds in arrears at Time Check 3. For a few minutes the Canadians were first and second. Finally, Norwegian Søren Wærenskjold took over the hot seat with 55:42 before Nelson Oliveira usurped his position by five seconds.

It got down to the nitty-gritty: Brandon McNulty, Primož Roglič, Filippo Ganna and Remco Evenepoel. Evenepoel was in the start house stressing as his chain came off and his launch time drew closer.

With all the riders through Time Check 1, it was clear that the contest was between Evenepoel (13:39), Ganna (13:45) and Brit Joshua Tarling (13:51), last year’s podium. By the second intermediate check, Tarling was trailing Jay Vine and Affini.

At the finish the top times kept falling, and the Canadians kept sifting down the column.

The gap between the Belgian and the Italian was 9 seconds at Time Check 2. Tarling rallied on the flat, lake side part of the course. Vine crashed and came in tattered and bloody.