The double Olympic gold medallist Remco Evenepoel successfully defended his world time trial title, which he won at last year's World Road Championships in Glasgow, by claiming victory in this year's event held in Zurich. The Belgian, who secured gold in both the men's road race and time trial at Paris 2024, became the first rider to simultaneously hold both Olympic and world time trial titles, following in the footsteps of Australian Grace Brown, who had won the women's 'race of truth' earlier on Sunday.
However, Evenepoel, the reigning champion, experienced one of his customary time trial scares just before the start, when the chain on his bespoke Olympic gold time trial bike slipped off mere seconds before he was due to begin. 'It was a pretty tough day for me,' the 24-year-old, who finished third in this year's Tour de France, recounted. 'My chain dropped with one minute to go before the start. Then I had no power meter from the start, so it was a pure time trial, on feeling.'
He also faced a formidable challenge from the former world champion, Filippo Ganna of Italy, who had won silver in Paris 2024. Ganna narrowed the time gap between them in the closing kilometers. 'I was struggling in the last two or three kilometers,' Evenepoel admitted. 'I pushed quite hard and, without the power meter, it was pretty difficult to keep the pace in the last five kilometers. But if you want to win, you need to feel your body as well.'
British contender Josh Tarling, who had won bronze last year in Glasgow but saw his medal hopes in Paris 2024 dashed by a puncture, arrived in Zurich with something to prove. However, his season has been far from smooth, and he had to settle for fourth place once again. After starting the year with a stage win in February's O Gran Camiño race in Spain, Tarling was disqualified for holding onto a team car in Paris-Roubaix, recovered to win the British national time trial title, but then lost out in the Olympic Games. He was also forced to withdraw from his debut Grand Tour, the Vuelta a España, after crashing on stage nine. 'To be honest, I messed up the whole end of my season really bad,' Tarling confessed. 'I really cracked after the Olympics and then messed up in the Vuelta and crashed. I was just recovering and sulking.'
Meanwhile, there was disappointment for Demi Vollering in the elite women's time trial, as the Dutch rider suffered another narrow defeat, just weeks after losing the Tour de France Femmes by a mere four seconds. Olympic time trial champion Brown emerged victorious in the 29.9km race against the clock. The 32-year-old, who was just 16 seconds faster than Vollering on the rolling course from Gossau to Zurich, became the first rider to win both the Olympic and world time trial titles in the same season, shortly before Evenepoel achieved the same feat. 'I didn't realise that hadn't been done before. It was something I aimed for, but not something I expected,' Brown said. 'It was an ambition at the start of this year, with the Olympics and the world championships as big goals, but I'm really proud to have achieved it.'
Great Britain's Anne Henderson, the silver medallist in the Paris Olympics time trial, finished in seventh place and expressed disappointment with her performance. 'I was just terrible today,' she said. 'I left my legs in the hotel. It kinda sucks. I just didn't have it today.' 'I felt really good in training all week and I was really hopeful. I knew as soon as I hit that first climb, I was way under target power, and I thought, 'it's going to be a long day.'' Henderson acknowledged that the world championships time trial course, which included steady climbs, fast descents, and flat sections, was more complicated than the city center circuit in Paris. 'It was super-tricky to put together a pacing plan today,' Henderson said. 'In Paris, it was just one power the whole way, because it was super-flat.'
