World Road Championships: Evenepoel Makes History with Fourth Gold

Remco Evenepoel further emphasized his status as the best time trialist in pro cycling—and perhaps of all time—with a stomping performance at the road worlds on Sunday, pummeling his rivals for four in a row.

Evenepoel beat Filippo Ganna (Italy) and Paul Seixas (France) into the lesser medals, with Jacob Söderqvist (Norway) looking like a runner for the top three but crashing close to the finish and ending up fifth.

He had been pushed close by Seixas’ time and may have erred as a result. The Frenchman held the provisional best time but first Ganna and then Evenepoel went quicker.

The Belgian bullet ended up a staggering 57.31 ahead of Ganna and 1 minute 13.04 in front of Seixas. American rider Brandon McNulty was fourth, 1:25 back. Söderqvist and the Mexican Isaac Del Toro were next.

“It is amazing,” Evenepoel said. “It was obviously the goal to come and win here for the fourth time in a row. It was a big motivation and I just have to thank the whole team around me again for the preparation. Also I have to thank Specialized for all the new material they made with me.”

He’s a strong climber and arguably would have been more dominant had the course been harder. However his aerodynamics and his technical ability more than compensated for the power of bigger riders, putting him far ahead.

“Obviously it was a fast one today,” he said.

“I was very happy with the feeling with the cornering. It was a very demanding course with the technical start and finish and the power part in the middle. I am super happy, it was a wonderful experience again.”

Söderqvist versus Seixas, then a big setback

The elite men’s time trial covered the same 39.2km route the elite women used earlier on Saturday. It was mostly flat and fast, with a climb at the end.

Byran Munton (South Africa) was the early pacesetter, but his time at intermediate point one was beaten by Jan Tratnik (Slovenia) and, almost immediately, by Kasper Asgreen (Denmark). Michael Leonard (Canada) then went quicker again, his time slightly ahead of that of Seixas.

The German rider Jasha Sütterlin edged out Munton at the finish but his slot in the hot seat was very soon taken by Asgreen, who was good enough to hold off Leonard. However the Dane couldn’t get too comfortable: Jacob Söderqvist (Norway) took the fastest time at the first check, while Paul Seixas was best at the second.

It seemed a matter of time before it would be all change at the top.

Söderqvist continued at the same pace to top checkpoints two and three but, behind him, defending champion Evenepoel was tearing up the course.

He was 9.4 seconds quicker at checkpoint 1, and 34.75 better at the next point. Gold seemed almost certain but the question of silver still had to be settled and, in trying to hold his narrow advantage over Seixas, Söderqvist went too hot into a left hand bend and went down.

That was that for his medal chances, but Ganna—who had seemed out of the picture at the first check—was going faster and faster. He tore in ahead of 19-year-old phemon Seixas, but there was no disputing the winner.

Evenepoel was streets ahead to become the first to four in a row and, equally importantly, has given himself the chance of taking an unprecedented double at the road worlds in one week’s time.