Belgian pundit believes Remco Evenepoel is the man to beat for time-trial World Championships: "This is a dream opportunity"

The World Championships time-trial event will be fully stacked with some of the world's best. Filippo Ganna, Joshua Tarling, Primoz Roglic, Stefan Küng and many more will fight for the medals but Remco Evenepoel is the man to beat according to Sporza commentator and pundit Renaat Schotte who gave his honest opinion on the eve of the race.

"He will be presented with a time trial course like he has never been presented with at a World Championship", Renaat Schotte said for Sporza. "This is a dream opportunity for an extension. For Evenepoel, it is almost the title he cannot afford to miss." After winning last year in Glasgow; and this year also winning in Paris at the Olympic Games, the Belgian certainly enters as the man with the highest chances of winning in the 46-kilometer route. 

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However Evenepoel did find some difficulties in the preparation towards the race. "That's perfectly normal. When you reach such high [fitness] peaks, you have to come down from that peak for a while," Schotte argues. "The Tour of Britain was perfect to ride in and he deliberately let go of a fairly certain European time trial title, even with a lesser condition that was possible, to be at the top at this World Championship."

"Evenepoel realizes better than anyone that a rainbow jersey surpasses everything. He has left nothing to chance. Let there be no doubt: we will see the best possible Evenepoel here. He owes that to his status in combination with this course. He is more of a favorite here than at the Games. The pressure is on his shoulders, but you know he can handle that very well." There is no doubt that Evenepoel can handle the pressure, perhaps most evidently shown at the Tour de France where after several years of promise, he put on a virtually spotless race, winning a race and finishing third only behind Tadej Pogacar and Jonas Vingegaard - whilst being a step ahead of the rest of the competition.

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"I am very curious about the state of readiness of Filippo Ganna and Joshua Tarling. I'm not discounting them on this course, because they are time trial machines" Schotte believes. "They can also develop their power when it goes slightly uphill. There are long straight sections and the final phase is more for the men with a big engine. You end up with those men who have already proven that they can peak for a championship."

The signs for the Italian are not the best however, according to him as well. "Without bad luck, Tarling might have won bronze in Paris, Ganna might have tried to do a bit too much due to the combination with the track. Apparently he suffered from serious decompression. The reports in the Italian press were quite pessimistic, certainly by Italian standards."

However Evenepoel's biggest rival may actually be home rider and recent Vuelta a España time-trial winner Stefan Küng, who appears to be at his very best level currently. "I think he will only now be able to use the super compensation after the Vuelta. The European Championship, 3 days after his victory in the final time trial, came too early, but maybe he will be on top of it now in front of his home crowd."

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