Remco Evenepoel has retained his title as world champion in the time trial in Zurich. The Belgian, winner of the time trial and the road race at the Paris Olympic Games, finished ahead of Italians Filipo Ganna and Edoardo Affini. On the Swiss side, the disappointment is great. The best Swiss, Stefan Küng, finished in 8th place.
Evenepoel, who becomes the first rider in history to win both the world and Olympic titles in the same year, finished 7 seconds ahead of Ganna and 55 seconds ahead of Affini.
Leading by 20 seconds after the last intermediate time, the Flemish rider scared himself by losing 13 seconds to Ganna in the final flat section.
A fatal climb for Küng
For Küng, who finished 1’48 behind Evenepoel, the only real difficulty of the day, located halfway through this 46.1km time trial, caused him to lose all hope of reaching the podium.
Indeed, while he was still in 4th place, 21 seconds behind Evenepoel after the first intermediate time, he dropped to 9th place at the top of the rise. Another Swiss at the start, Stefan Bissegger, finished in a modest 29th place, 4’05 behind the day’s winner.
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