Wout van Aert (Visma-Lease a Bike) and Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-Quickstep) will have their first ‘live’ time trial test of 2024 at the Volta ao Algarve on Saturday afternoon, in the shape of a rugged 22-kilometre course in and around the coastal town of Albufeira.
After rarely using his time trial bike over the winter, Van Aert has stated that he has very few expectations of an outstanding performance in the Algarve test. That said, in a year where he has made the Olympic time trial a major target, any race against the clock is important, be it the Algarve or the two, much longer, TTs in the Giro d’Italia.
Evenepoel is a very different story, at least in the short term. Just four seconds behind race leader Dani Martínez (Bora-Hansgrohe), gunning for a record-equalling third overall victory in the Volta ao Algarve is very much on his radar.
While both riders and their teams will have their own internal goals, the points of comparison in such a deep time-trialling field at Algarve make it an even more valuable exercise. Stefan Küng (Groupama-FDJ), Filippo Ganna (Ineos Grenadiers) and Stefan Bissegger (EF Education EasyPost) are all renowned specialists, and Martínez, too, is a four times Colombian TT National Champion.
“We have carried out tests in the Specialized wind tunnel in California at the end of 2023,” Evenepoel’s trainer Koen Pelgrim told Dernière Heure on Saturday. “I can’t give all the details, but we carried out some minor changes in Remco’s position to find the best balance between comfort and efficiency in terms of power and aerodynamics. That’s the key equation.”
“They weren’t major gains, but as every detail can be decisive…”
Evenepoel then returned to Milan for a second series of wind tunnel tests in the middle of January, to test out a new series of overshoes as well as different combinations of skinsuits and helmets.
“To be precise about how much difference a time triallist’s clothing can make,” Pelgrim said, “the difference that separated [gold medallist] Remco from [runner-up] Ganna in the last World Championships” – a scant 12 seconds – “could all be due to their clothing.”
According to Derniére Heure, Van Aert has also changed his position slightly on his time trial bike, thanks to tests carried out on the track in Zolder, Belgium. “We’ve gone back to the position he used to have in 2022 with his arms slightly higher,” Visma-Lease A Bike coach Mathieu Heijboer told the newspaper.
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