Remco Evenepoel (Belgium) once again put several of the top riders in the world to shame, dominating his way to victory in the UEC Road European Championships time trial, less than two weeks after he won a third world time trial title in a row in Rwanda.
While top time trial specialists Filippo Ganna (Italy) and Josh Tarling (Great Britain) impressed on the 24-kilometre course in France's Drôme department, beating the best times at the first two intermediate time checks, it quickly became clear that Evenepoel was in a different league.
Just as he commanded the field in Kigali, where he overtook his two-and-a-half-minute man, Tadej Pogačar (Slovenia), Evenepoel once again swept up one of the top TT riders in the world, catching minute-man Stefan Küng (Switzerland) barely 7km into the effort.
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Having beaten Ganna, Tarling and Niklas Larsen's (Denmark) best times at all of the time checks, Evenepoel only extended his lead as he scorched through the final kilometres into Étoile-sur-Rhône, extending his eventual winning margin out to 43 seconds by the finish.
Setting an incredible average speed of 50.7 kph in windy conditions, Evenepoel topped a podium that also included Ganna in second and Larsen in third, having narrowly held off Tarling and his British compatriot Ethan Hayter.
Elite men's time trial gold medalist Remco Evenepoel (Belgium) stands on the podium at UEC Road Cycling European Championships next to silver medalist Filippo Ganna of Italy (left) and bronze medalist Niklas Larsen of Denmark (right) (Image credit: Getty Images)
Evenepoel's victory brings the second European Championship time trial victory of his career, adding to his 2019 title, but it also means – in historic fashion – that he is the holder of the Olympic, World Championships and European ITT titles.
"I'm super happy to take another title today. I think the wind was pretty strong, always on the head or a little bit on the side, so it was really difficult sometimes to control the bike and to take the corner properly, but I think we managed everything well and it all went perfectly," said Evenepoel, who will now turn his focus to that road race.
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Fresh off the back of his disappointing defeat in the road race at Rwanda Worlds, Evenepoel laid down a marker ahead of his rematch with Pogačar at the European Championships road race this coming Sunday, where other top climbers Jonas Vingegaard (Denmark) and João Almeida (Portugal) will also be involved.
"Luckily now, there is a bit more time in between the event, so tomorrow I'm going to rest and then have some good training here, and I hope to be ready for Sunday," he added.
He hasn't yet been to recon the course, "but we are sleeping really close, so probably tomorrow or the day after, I will go ride it easily and have a proper look, because it seems to be a very beautiful course, so I'm looking forward to it."
How it unfolded
Action in the elite men's time trial brought a busy day of racing in France to a close on Wednesday at the UEC Road European Championships, with the best riders on the continent set to do battle over 24km and a punch to the finish line in Étoile-sur-Rhône.
Turkey's Tahir Yiğit was the first to roll down the starting ramp in Loriol-sur-Drôme, but with only 31 starters, who would all get going at one-minute intervals, it wasn't long until the favourites got into their efforts.
Former European champion, Stefan Bissegger (Switzerland), set off and marked the halfway point of starters, with other contenders such as Daan Hoole (Netherlands) and Ethan Hayter (Great Britain) also getting underway just after 4pm local time. The big favourites Evenepoel, Ganna and Tarling were among the last five to roll down the start ramp.
At the first time check, it was Denmark's Larsen who held the lead ahead of Hoole and Hayter, but they were all within striking distance for the latter two-thirds of the route. Larsen's time was then beaten by his compatriot Mads Pedersen, but still only by less than a second.
As the favourites started flying, though, Tarling scorched past the first time check at 6.6km, before Ganna went two seconds faster than him. However, Evenepoel blew them all out of the water, proving he was by no means tired after his long travel from the Road World Championships in Rwanda, beating Ganna's time by 14 seconds.
It was déjà vu at the second checkpoint, 5km further into the race, with Tarling, then Ganna, and finally Evenepoel setting new best times. The World Champion was resplendent in his all white skinsuit and the rainbow bands, storming past his minute-man Küng with a long way to go.
Larsen and Hayter set respectable times at the finish to sit on the provisional podium, but the victory was surely going to come from one of the later starters. The former did hold off Hayter and Tarling by less than two seconds each, but Ganna stormed through 25 seconds quicker.
However, it was a short-lived time in the lead for the Italian, with Evenepoel soon arriving at a very green timing clock and the finish line, having dominated everyone and taken the victory ahead of Ganna by 43 seconds.
James Moultrie is a gold-standard NCTJ journalist who joined Cyclingnews as a News Writer in 2023 after originally contributing as a freelancer for eight months, during which time he also wrote for Eurosport, Rouleur and Cycling Weekly. Prior to joining the team he reported on races such as Paris-Roubaix and the Giro d’Italia Donne for Eurosport and has interviewed some of the sport’s top riders in Chloé Dygert, Lizzie Deignan and Wout van Aert. Outside of cycling, he spends the majority of his time watching other sports – rugby, football, cricket, and American Football to name a few.
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