Tour de France winner Tadej Pogacar will head into his final two races of the season on Tuesday and Saturday boasting the coup of becoming the first man in a decade to claim the world and European road race crown in the same season.
Peter Sagan managed the feat in 2016 and on Sunday in Guilherand-Granges in south-eastern France, Pogacar completed the 202km course in four hours, 59 minutes and 29 seconds.
As in the road race in Kigali at the world championships, Remco Evenepoel from Belgium finished second.
But unlike that race in Rwanda, the 19-year-old Frenchman Paul Seixas finished third.
"I saw I was losing teammates," said Pogacar who broke for glory 75km from the finish line.
"It wasn't the plan to go from there, but it had to be there, it was the hardest hill and that was my advantage there."
Pogacar wins third Tour de France title in time-trial finale on French Riviera
Pogacar goes for glory
As Pogacar opened a one-minute lead, Evenepoel teamed up with Seixas to lead the resistance and they were joined by Spain's Juan Ayuso and Italy's Christian Scaroni.
"Second place again," said Evenepoel who finished 31 seconds behind Pogacar.
"It's always the same at the championships. The others didn't want to work with me. It's a bit frustrating but they had their team orders, you have to accept it."
Evenepoel won the European time trial and the world championship time trial this year, while he capped 2024 with the road and time trial titles at the Paris Olympic Games.
Behind them Scaroni and Seixas duelled for third over the closing stages before Seixas won that battle for reflected glory.
France team coach Thomas Voeckler said of Seixas' bronze: "There's a lot of noise around him and it's understandable.
"What he just did was massive. Let him develop, and we'll see how far he goes."
Pogacar's victory gave him his 18th title of the season and the 106th in his career.
He will compete in Italy at the Tre Valli Varesine and then in the Tour of Lombardy where he will attempt to become the first man to win a fifth consecutive title in the race's 118-year history.
