His trophy case already contains multiple world titles, an Olympic Games double, and a Grand Tour victory, but Remco Evenepoel added another huge achievement to his palmarès on Sunday as he became the third rider to win three successive world time trial titles.
The Belgian dominated the men's time trial at the UCI Road World Championships in Kigali, winning by a margin of 1:14 over second-placed Jay Vine (Australia), and catching his main rival Tadej Pogačar (Slovenia) on the course, despite starting two and a half minutes behind him.
Given the wealth of things Evenepoel has already achieved, there was no dramatic exuberance as he reacted to becoming world champion again, but he did place this win as one of his best TT victories.
"It was a really specific one because it's pushing all the time, but I think if I see my time gaps from start to finish, it's pretty good to say that it was one of my best ones," he said.
"Of course it was really tough with the parcours, the heat, the altitude, but I think with these circumstances we can say it was probably one of my best ones, together with the one of Dauphiné this year, but it was completely different. But I think for a World Championships, it was probably the best one."
For some riders, catching their biggest rival – and a rider as decorated as Pogačar – may have made winning sweeter, but for Evenepoel, who was caught in a TT himself at the Tour de France this year, he did not revel too much in what may become the defining moment of the race.
"Pain," he said was the only thing he felt when he passed the Slovenian. "It was the last three or four minutes of the race. It was not my goal today to go and catch him, I just wanted to go as fast as possible, and once I saw him getting bigger on the Côte de Peage, I just wanted to get to him as fast as possible, and on the start of the cobbled climb I was really close, and maybe I went a little bit over the limit to catch him there, because then I felt like I was slowing down on the flat part of the cobbles."
"But like I said, this wasn't my goal of the race, I just wanted to win, and catching him or not didn't really matter. So I think it's not something that we need to make bigger than it is. Because I've also been passed in a TT this year, so it's something that happens or doesn't happen. Once you have a rider in sight, you just want to go as fast as possible towards him, because it gives some extra motivation to go through the pain wall, but it was not something that was in my head."
What is in his mind, however, is next Sunday's road race. Evenepoel has been road race world champion before, in Wollongong in 2022, and also knows how to put together a double, after his historic wins in both the road race and TT at the Paris Olympics next year.
"Probably a little because next Sunday is also going to be up and down all the time," he said of if the time trial win gave him confidence for the road race. "Today you obviously had to climb on your own, so it's a little bit different, but it can say something. I said it before that I was feeling really good coming here, that I maybe have my best shape of the season at this moment, and I think after today it's something that you cannot hide from."
He did stress that the road race is a very different challenge, though, and compared it to Amstel Gold Race, which he finished third in this year. Bettering Pogačar, who remains the top favourite to defend his road race title next week, must still have added to Evenepoel's confidence
"Now I have one week to prepare for the road race, to stay calm, have some good recovery and make sure I can still have some good trainings to be completely ready for next week. But I think it's the first good sign for next week."
Double podium delight for Belgium
As well as Evenepoel's big victory, Belgium could celebrate twice on Sunday, as Ilan Van Wilder pulled out the performance of his life to finish third, his first time on a Worlds podium.
"I think it's the biggest achievement of my career so far, so I'm really happy," the 25-year-old said.
"I just had a good day. I said to you guys top 10 would be nice, but top 5 would be maybe possible if I had a good day, but for the podium, I didn't really expect. I think today the course and the circumstances was maybe my best chance ever to do this kind of result. I paced it quite well, and I was happy with my TT, and looking at the split times in the hot seat, I saw quite a lot of guys exploding in the last part, and that gave me hope to maybe fight for the podium."
Ironically, it was Evenepoel's capture of Pogačar that made Van Wilder nervous for his podium position, as there was only a tiny margin between Van Wilder and the Slovenian in the battle for third.
"Remco was coming close to Tadej and passing him so that gave a bit of slipstream to Tadej, so I was pretty stressed, because it was 1.5 seconds or something, so it's really nothing," Van Wilder said. "But luckily it's in my favour and I can be third and not fourth, because it's really day and night difference, especially for me."
The Belgian team will be soaking up the celebrations on Sunday, but attention will soon shift to the road race, where their intentions are clear.
"I will just enjoy this moment for now," Van Wilder said. "Maybe drink some good coffee tomorrow in Kigali, and then focus of course on the road race, because it's again a really nice chance for our Belgian team to fight for a win. So let's try to make it a double."
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