It was probably more of a marriage of convenience than a marriage of love, to which the assembled world press in Wollongong were invited as witnesses. In a press conference organised by the Belgian team, Wout van Aert and Remco Evenepoel swore to be faithful to each other - perhaps not until death do them part, but at least until the course of the race should dissolve the alliance. "Yes," said Evenepoel when asked whether the two leaders of the Belgian team would join forces in the World Championship race in Wollongong.
"It's like getting married in a church and having to say 'yes'," van Aert remarked to the journalists with a wink. Even there, saying 'yes' is not necessarily supposed to result in eternal fidelity. The vow of fidelity merely meant that they would not make things unnecessarily difficult for their team-mates, who were also their biggest rivals in the title race.
The birds of Wollongong
After all, no third party should be happy about the world championship title. "That makes us harder to predict. That's a big advantage for our team," explained van Aert, the senior partner of the team. The self-confidence was overflowing - especially from the shooting star of the duo. Who are the biggest opponents in the race? "The birds," replied Evenepoel in view of the unusual swooping attacks that the magpies made on passing cyclists in Wollongong.
Ten years after the last time a Belgian won the title with Philippe Gilbert and one year after the botched home race at the World Championships around the Flemish city of Leuven, everyone agreed that they had to do better this time. Back then, after an immature World Championships performance that left the host nation empty-handed in the battle for the medals, the headlines were full of rumours of a rift between the two strongest Belgians at the time.
The top favourites
In the final, the two had nothing on Julian Alaphilippe as the Frenchman stormed into the rainbow jersey on the hilly city course in Leuven. Jasper Stuyven was the best Belgian in fourth place.
This time, the leading role in the Belgian national team was explicitly divided between the winner of the green jersey at the Tour de France, the sprinting and mountainous Van Aert, and the 22-year-old wonder boy Evenepoel, who had enchanted the Belgian public two weeks earlier with his overall victory at the Tour of Spain. "He is the next superstar of cycling," former pro Jens Voigt had already said about Evenepoel before the race when he described the two Belgians as his top favourites for TOUR.
Both were beaming at the finish - the double lead had worked. "I think a lot of the guys had synchronised their race with me. That gave Remco extra space. I'm happy that I was able to fulfil this role," said van Aert. He himself had followed the Frenchman's early attack on Mount Keira, while Evenepoel held back and stayed in the peloton with defending champion Julian Alaphilippe, who clearly hadn't had his best day.
Before that, the two cyclists from Flanders and their team-mates had painted a kind of tactical masterpiece on the roads of Australia's west coast. "We rode like a real team. As we said before: We want to become world champions with the team," said van Aert, who still has to wait for his first world title on the road.
Preliminary decision at the World Cycling Championships
In the end, the balance of power was in favour of the younger Belgian, also due to the work of the German national team. When the French pushed the pace more than 200 kilometres before the finish on Mount Keira, the Germans had completely missed the attack - while numerous favourites such as Romain Bardet, Wout van Aert and Tadej Pogacar were at the front.
The result: Miguel Heidemann, Jonas Koch and Nico Denz pulled the remaining peloton back to the breakaway with Evenepoel. The Germans, weakened by many cancellations, did not have a medal candidate in their ranks. Later, the Spaniards and the Dutch took over the chase - with the latter losing their captain Mathieu van der Poel early in the race. After a late-night scuffle in the hotel corridor, he spent most of the night in the police station and abandoned the race after a few kilometres, exasperated.
Irresistible towards the goal
Thanks to the friendly cooperation of his opponents, Evenepoel was back in the race for gold - while the most promising German, 24-year-old Georg Zimmermann, crashed spectacularly on a descent around 75 kilometres before the finish and abandoned. Almost at the same time, Evenepoel had initiated the decisive chasing group from the remaining peloton by stepping up the pace on Mount Pleasant, the steepest climb on the city course at around 14 per cent, while van Aert tied up a few rivals further back.
Evenepoel pedalled irresistibly towards the finish, collecting the last of the early breakaway riders before shaking off Alexei Lutsenko as his last companion 25 kilometres before the finish and riding unchallenged as a soloist towards the world championship triumph.
Behind them, the battle for the medals remained confusing for the riders - a hesitant chasing group was overrun by the peloton 500 metres before the finish. During the final sprint, van Aert didn't even know which place was at stake.
The flow of information in the World Championship race, which is contested without a radio link to the sporting directors, was in need of improvement. Van Aert ultimately finished fourth - behind Christophe Laporte, who crowned the French team's hard work with silver in the final metres, and co-favourite Michael Matthews, who gave the Australian hosts a bronze medal at the end of the competitions.
Evenepoel has nothing to oppose
Thomas Voeckler, the French national coach, had his men do everything they could to get the race moving. And yet the Equipe Tricolore had no chance. "Remco was no match for us," admitted Voeckler. And the new world champion was delighted with his season: "I won a classic, a Grand Tour and the world championship - I won everything I could. Maybe I'll never have a better season again." At the age of 22, he has already fulfilled his dream of wearing the rainbow jersey, which he will probably wear for a shorter time than his predecessors.
"It's a shame that the next World Championship is already in August. So it will be one of the shortest years as world champion!" he remarked. Next year, the first edition of the big cycling world championships including mountain bikers, track and handicap cyclists, BMX and granfondo competition will take place from 3 to 13 August in Glasgow. It could well be that his compatriot van Aert, six years his senior, will then claim his right to the captain's role. Whatever the public oath of allegiance may then be.
World Cycling Championships: Men's road race results (266.9 km)
- Remco Evenepoel (BEL), 6:16:08 hrs (42.575 km/h)
- Christophe Laporte (FRA), +2:21 min.
- Michael Matthews (AUS)
- Wout van Aert (BEL)
- Matteo Trentin (ITA)
- Alexander Kristoff (NOR)
- Peter Sagan (SLK)
- Alberto Bettiol (ITA)
- Ethan Hayter (GBR)
- 10. Mattias Skjelmose (DEN), all same time
... 52. Nikias Arndt (GER), +3:08
Young German talents at the World Cycling Championships
It's fair to say that the German Cycling Federation has had to rejuvenate its national teams. Tony Martin, the eternal medallist in the time trials, and the leader of the women's team, Lisa Brennauer, have just retired. Top sprinter Pascal Ackermann is weakening, Lennard Kämna and Maximilian Schachmann were absent due to form and health problems, Nils Politt was not given clearance by Team Bora-Hansgrohe.
This meant opportunities for talents from the second row: Liane Lippert and Ricarda Bauernfeind showed that the German women will remain in the fight for the medals in the coming years. Georg Zimmermann, the best card in the men's race, crashed before he could show his skills. It will be interesting to see who from the U23 team makes the leap to the top of the world.
National coach Ralf Grabsch was able to take one of the strongest line-ups of recent years to Australia - as at the Tour de l'Avenir, the men in white and black were very present, but not very successful. Michel Hessmann, who has already competed in the World Tour for Team Jumbo-Visma, finished fifth in the individual time trial and eleventh in the road race - but the ensemble did not make enough of the many strong individual talents.
And a top rider is already pushing on from below, whose daring performance in the junior world championship race was reminiscent of the young Remco Evenepoel: Emil Herzog, who turned 18 shortly after the world championships. As the top favourite, the Allgäuer took control early in the race, intercepted attacks and attacked himself - in a long sprint to the finish he defeated the Portuguese Antonio Morgado.
Herzog, who grew up in Bora-Hansgrohe's junior team, Auto Eder, is moving to the internationally renowned US junior team Hagens Berman Axeon, which is managed by Axel Merckx. Bora team boss Ralph Denk believes that the young talent will then return to his racing team as a professional.
Bronze in the individual time trial and gold in the junior road race are a promise - but perhaps also a mortgage. The last junior world road race champions from Germany, Holger Loew and Jonas Bokeloh, were never able to establish themselves in professional cycling.
Andreas Kublik
Editor
