World Cycling Championships 2024: Demonstration of power! Evenepoel is time trial world champion
Thomas Huber
· 22.09.2024
The old time trial world champion is the new time trial world champion. Remco Evenepoel once again showed his rivals the limits in the time trial at the 2024 World Cycling Championships in Zurich, taking a commanding victory ahead of the two Italians Filippo Ganna and Edoardo Affini. From the start of the race, the Belgian dictated the action and was in first place from the first to the last time trial. Evenepoel even slowed down a little in the final metres and used the last few metres to celebrate.
Evenepoel experienced a moment of shock even before the start of the race: standing on the start ramp, the Belgian's chain fell off the chainring, forcing him to get off his racing bike. However, his mechanics reacted quickly and straightened the chain just in time. A few seconds before his clock ran down, Evenepoel was still ready to go.
Evenepoel unbeatable
Since his victory in the individual time trial in Stirling last year, Evenepoel has dominated the discipline at will. This season, he not only won an individual time trial at the Tour de France, but also became Olympic time trial champion. With the subsequent world championship title, it is clear that Evenepoel is currently the measure of all things in the time trial.
"After my chain fell off shortly before the start, my power meter also failed throughout the race. I had to ride by feel and therefore had a bit of trouble maintaining my speed at the end. I'm glad it worked out in the end." - World champion Remco Evenepoel
World Cycling Championships 2024 - Results: The top 10 of the individual time trial
- Remco Evenepoel (Belgium) 53:01.98
- Filippo Ganna (Italy) +6.43
- Edoardo Affini (Italy) +54.44
- Joshua Tarling (Great Britain) +1:17.63
- Jay Vine (Australia) +1:24.18
- Kasper Asgreen (Denmark) +1:30.11
- Tobias Foss (Norway) +1:44.50
- Stefan Küng (Switzerland) +1:48.34
- Victor Campenaerts (Belgium) +1:55.16
- Brandon McNulty (USA) +1:58.03
How the individual time trial of the 2024 World Cycling Championships went
Charles Kagimu from Uganda opened the race at 14:52. He was the first rider to set off on the 46.1-kilometre course, which leads from Zurich Orlikon to the centre of Zurich on Sechseläutenplatz. The middle section included a hilly sector, while the first and last sections of the race were mostly flat.
Pier-Andre Cote (Canada) put in a good performance at the start of the race and was in the hot seat for a long time. It took almost an hour before a driver displaced the Canadian. Sören Waerenskjold from Norway beat the Canadian's previous best time by five seconds. At this point, the German Miguel Heidemann was in third place.
The favourites start
By this point, the top favourites had already left the start ramp: These included local hero Stefan Küng (Switzerland), Joshua Tarling (Great Britain), Primoz Roglic (Slovenia) and Remco Evenepoel (Belgium). Evenepoel's chain fell off his bike on the start ramp shortly before his start and he had to get off his racing bike before his race had even begun. However, his mechanics reacted quickly and straightened the chain on the chainring just in time. Although Evenepoel did not lose any time, this probably caused the Olympic champion, who was the last rider on the course, to break out in a small sweat.
The Belgian took the fastest time at the first intermediate time. At this point, he was just ahead of Filippo Ganna (Italy) and Joshua Tarling. Meanwhile, reigning European champion Edoardo Affini (Italy) crossed the finish line, pulverising Kasper Asgreen's (Denmark) best time by over half a minute.
Evenepoel before Ganna
A clearer situation then crystallised. Evenepoel extended his lead slightly at the second intermediate time - at this point he had a lead of almost 10 seconds over Ganna. Behind him, Jay Vine (Australia) was now in third place and clearly ahead of Tarling and Affini. The latter was still in the lead at the finish.
Ganna was unable to counter in the direct duel with Evenepoel and continued to lose time. Meanwhile, Jay Vine (Australia), who had been on course for bronze, crossed the finish line with numerous wounds. He had crashed during the race and was therefore unable to take part in the medal decision. Local hero Stefan Küng lost too much time in the hilly sector and also clearly missed out on a top place. Meanwhile, a duel was brewing for third place: Affini, sitting in the hot seat, awaited the arrival of Tarling.
Affini finishes third
As Tarling approached the finish line, it was clear that the young Briton lacked the power in the final section to fight with Affini for bronze. In the end, Affini was over 20 seconds faster than Tarling and snatched third place. Meanwhile, the last rider to cross the finish line was Remco Evenepoel, who pulled away in the final metres and began to celebrate.
