STIRLING, Scotland (Reuters) – Belgium’s Remco Evenepoel added the world road time trial title to his collection of honours with a perfectly paced ride to edge out Italy’s Filippo Ganna on Friday.
Evenepoel surrendered his road race title last weekend in a high-octane battle won by Mathieu van der Poel in Glasgow but hit back to end the World Championships on a high.
He powered up the steep cobbled climb to Stirling Castle at the end of the 47.8km, stopping the clock on 55:19.23 to become the first Belgian man to win the title.
“It’s amazing and this was one of my biggest goals of the season,” the 23-year-old said. “And to do it on a tough course which is not perfect for my weight is special.
“At the second intermediate I knew I was ahead and I still had some terrain to come which was better for me but the final climb to the finish was brutal, a knife in the legs.”
Ganna, world time trial champion on the road in 2020 and 2021, crossed the line shortly before Evenepoel and briefly topped the scoreboard but Evenepoel went 12.3 seconds quicker.
Evenepoel’s average speed was 51.8kph.
Britain’s 19-year-old Joshua Tarling, the junior champion a year ago, beat a host of big names including compatriot Geraint Thomas and Wout van Aert, to take the bronze medal at 48 seconds. No other rider was within a minute of Evenepoel.
Former world junior champion Evenepoel had previously won two bronzes an a silver in the time trial but now adds another rainbow jersey to his wardrobe.
Earlier in the day Ben Wiggins, son of Britain’s former Tour de France and Olympic champion Bradley Wiggins, was second on the junior road race behind Australia’s Oscar Chamberlain.
“To get a medal at my first World Championships, it can’t get much better,” the 18-year-old Wiggins said.
“Obviously, there’s the (rainbow) jersey but I’m sure I’ll get more opportunities to get that over the years.”
(Reporting by Martyn Herman, editing by Pritha Sarkar)
