It wasn't much of a surprise that Remco Evenepoel (Belgium) claimed his fourth straight time trial title in the UCI Road World Championships, as he went into the race in Montreal as the outright favourite, but what was unusual was the margin of victory over Filippo Ganna (Italy).
In the pair's previous head-to-heads in 2023 and 2024, the gaps were 12 and six seconds, respectively. The gap on Sunday was a massive 57 seconds.
Ganna seemed a bit demoralised after putting in what he said was his career-best power numbers for the 45-minute effort over 39.2 kilometres. He was critical of the condition of the course outside of the Formula 1 circuit and cycle path, as in the city the race was riddled with potholes, cracks and uneven tarmac.
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"I think a World Championship can merit the best tarmac, in the start especially," Ganna said. "It was the same tarmac for everyone, so maybe a new tarmac could be nice for everyone."
Evenepoel and Ganna were seen chatting before the podium, the Belgian saying that he wished the Italian luck for the early start for the Mixed Relay on Tuesday, adding that "we respect each other a lot". However, after trouncing Ganna in the race, he was throwing a little shade at Ganna's claims on his power output.
"He says it every time that he's second or when he wins that he has his best power output. I think it's difficult to say on this one, because obviously there were a lot of corners, so let's say that average power and normalised power are quite a lot divided.
"For me personally, I had the feeling I was doing a very good power output on the flat. I think if he really did his best 45-minute effort, he would have been a bit closer, I guess.
"I understand that on a TT like today he would have hoped to be closer to me, because it was completely flat except for the last 2k or 3k. And then also with the corners, in the past he used to really gain a lot of time on me, but I think that I've improved a lot in cornering on a TT bike and on a normal bike. Also, confidence-wise, I think it helps a lot to dare to push in the corners."
Pushing in Montreal's corners came at a risk - Jakob Soderqvist (Sweden) was on track for a possible podium, running third at the last check until he crashed in one.
Evenepoel, though, made it safely through and with evidence of his skill clear on the results sheet. In the first 10.7 kilometres, where there were 18 turns, Evenepoel put almost 23 seconds into Ganna. On the second section, that included several 180° turns and a few others, Ganna lost another 18 seconds - that's 41 seconds over the first 21.9km. The gains were much smaller on the somewhat less technical return trip, accounting for only another 17 seconds over 17.3km.
"I think I understand that he lost his hope," Evenepoel said. "I would never give up, because everything can change. I'm always going to push for the TTs, and next year I will, for sure, try to go for the fifth one. But today I just did a very good TT for myself. It's difficult to tell him what to do to come closer, because I just focus on what I do and on what I think can be better."
Ganna insisted that his training went well and his time was faster than his team predicted. He wasn't lacking in confidence or determination.
"It could be maybe about the material, could be maybe about my position, maybe I was just not a bullet like him," Ganna said before being asked if he'd done any special testing or changes for the World Championships.
"About the material and about the wind tunnel, the last time was proper in January/February, but we didn't do any more before here because the date for joining the [wind] tunnel was not available. So we need to keep what we have and think for the future with what we have."
Another difference between the two, Ganna said, was a long season since his January training camp with Ineos in Gran Canaria. "I think I have taken my shape at 90% for all of the season; I try to win maybe every month. If you think about Algarve, Tirreno, the Classics, Giro, until here, I try to win every time. If I don't win, I arrive second."
Meanwhile, Evenepoel took a full 69 days out of competition before the Tour de France. He worked closely with Specialized on their new Shiv for the Tour de France, and they are continuing to tweak the design through the last time trial of the season, the Chrono des Nations.
"It's been a few years since I was at the start," Evenepoel said of the French race. "Together with Specialized, we made the new bike, so we are going to continue testing it and see where there are still points to improve on the bike. So that is the biggest reason why I will be at the start of Chrono des Nations."
Still, at least Ganna could breathe a sigh of relief that the Hour Record is not yet on the agenda for Evenepoel and his mark of 56.792 kilometres might stand a little longer.
"Regarding the Hour Record, I haven't really thought yet about what to do with it, but it's clear that one day I could try," said Evenepoel. "I think I have the qualities to go after that record but I think before all that I still have many other objectives with the Grand Tours, with next Sunday [the elite men's road race], so there are many more objectives than the Hour Record."
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