2025 World Championship men's individual time trial: TOUR check on the favourites
Leon Weidner
· 21.09.2025
A course for specialists? Probably not. No classic time trial specialist is likely to win this year's individual time trial at the World Championships in Rwanda, especially as many won't even start. Too many metres in altitude tend to deter the best riders in the battle against the clock - overall class riders have a clear advantage here and are more likely to decide the title amongst themselves. There is not often a time trial like this at a World Championships; the last one was the steep final climb in Bergen in 2017, which was won by Dutchman Tom Dumoulin.
World Championship men's individual time trial: The most important facts in brief
- Date: Sunday 21.9.
- Time: 13:45 - 16:50
- Length: 40.6 kilometres
- Altitude metres: 680
- TV broadcast: Eurosport 1
- Live stream: Discovery Plus
The TOUR favourites by stars
***** Tadej Pogačar, Remco Evenepoel
**** Primož Roglič
*** Jay Vine
** Isaac del Toro, Bruno Armirail
* Mattia Cattaneo, Mauro Schmid, Ilan van Wilder, Stefan Küng, Iván Romeo, Luke Plapp, Thymen Arensman
* The more stars a driver receives, the higher his chances are rated
The favourites in the TOUR-Check
***** Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates - XRG)
During the time trial of the Critérium du Dauphine, Tadej Pogačar looked dissatisfied and almost a little perplexed, which is why he lost almost 28 seconds to Jonas Vingegaard. At the Tour de France, it was business as usual. The Slovenian took second place in the flat time trial, behind the Belgian Evenepoel, and won the mountain time trial in dominant fashion. On a flat course, Pogačar is unlikely to stand a chance against the absolute specialists, as could be seen at the UAE Tour at the beginning of the year. There he was beaten by Joshua Tarling and Stefan Bisseger. However, the 680 metres of altitude play into his hands. He has impressively proven several times that he is the strongest on the mountain, the only question is whether he can stand up to Remco Evenepoel. Pretty much anything seems possible for Pogačar at the moment, including winning the double world champion jersey.
***** Remco Evenepoel (Soudal Quick-Step)
For the past two years, Remco Evenepoel has slipped into the world champion's jersey as soon as the individual time trial starts. In addition to his overall classification ambitions, the world champion of the past two years is an absolute specialist in the battle against the clock. He regularly wins against the other, rather tall specialists and snatches the stage win away from them thanks to his aerodynamics. At the Tour of France, he demonstrated this impressively on the fifth stage, but suffered a crushing defeat in the mountain time trial a few days later. Although the world championship course is not a mountain time trial, it is anything but flat with its 680 metres of elevation gain. It is not for nothing that most of the other specialists are not at the start of the individual time trial. Tadej Pogačar is more likely to favour the short, crisp climbs, but Evenepoel could have the edge on the rest of the course. To date, only two people have managed three consecutive world championship titles in the individual time trial. The Australian Michael Rogers and the German Tony Martin. Remco Evenepoel could become the third member of this elite club.
**** Primož Roglič (Red Bull - BORA - hansgrohe)
The second Slovenian among the top favourites is Primož Roglič. At 35 years of age, he is the most experienced and always good for a surprise in the individual time trial. But Roglič also has bad days in this discipline, finishing far below his own expectations and those of the fans. On other days, he comes close to the times of the specialists and that on almost flat courses. His season was rather mediocre, he had to abandon the Giro d'Italia and finished eighth in the Tour de France behind his young team-mate Florian Lipowitz. But: Roglič can do individual time trials with altitude metres. He put in a strong performance in the Tour of France mountain time trial, only being beaten by Pogačar and Vingegaard. If Roglič has a good day, he can be in contention for victory.
*** Jay Vine (UAE Team Emirates - XRG)
The noble helper in the UAE team is always among the front runners in individual time trials. Even though the Australian has not won one this season, he has almost always finished in the top 5 and has sometimes been faster than his captain. Vine can climb anyway, having just won the mountains jersey at the Tour of Spain and secured two stage wins with a final climb. Whether the rather short climbs suit him is questionable, but it should be difficult against his team-mates Tadej Pogačar and Remco Evenepoel.
** Isaac del Toro (UAE Team Emirates - XRG)
Isaac del Toro is the third of the favourites from UAE Team Emirates - XRG. The 21-year-old Mexican made an impressive appearance on the big stage, narrowly missing out on victory at the Tour of Italy. So far, del Toro has not been able to shine in flat to undulating time trials, landing good but not outstanding results in individual time trials this season. However, a good placing should be possible thanks to the course guidance.
** Bruno Armirail (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale Team)
The three-time and reigning French time trial champion is usually among the top 10 in time trials. Armirail lacked strong results in time trials with significant metres of climbing last season, but the Frenchman has already finished in the top 5 in undulating individual time trials this season. As a specialist, he is also likely to have his problems with the course at this year's World Championships, but on a good day he could ensure a good placing.
* The outsiders
The above-mentioned favourites will be joined by a number of other riders who are fighting for a good position and have small hopes of taking the title with a surprise victory. These include Thymen Arensman (INEOS Grenadiers), who has finished well in several time trials. We also have 34-year-old Mattia Cattaneo (Soudal Quick-Step), his team-mate Ilan van Wilder (Soudal Quick-Step) and the specialist Stefan Küng (Groupama - FDJ) on our list. The Swiss rider is one of the few specialists at the start and is likely to have his problems with the metres of climbing. As a three-time Australian champion in the individual time trial, Luke Plapp is also a real specialist, but can also cope with easy climbs. However, the short ramps are also a little steep for Plapp. Iván Romeo (Movistar Team) is also a strong time trialist and regularly finishes in the top 10 in stages of this discipline.
Leon Weidner
Working student
