"For some people it is a surprise, but for me it is the happiest day of my day" - Ivan Romeo reacts to becoming U23 ITT world champion

For the first time since 1999, Spain has a individual time trial champion of the world! Iván Romeo has won the Under-23 World Time Trial in Zurich 2024 after a performance that is set to be engraved in the history books of Spanish cycling.

The 21-year-old Movistar Team rider took the rainbow jersey after destroying all his rivals with a finishing time of 36:42. The closest rival to Romeo was Sweden's Jakob Söderqvist, who finished 32 seconds! later than the Spaniard with 37:14. In his declarations just after becoming world champion, Ivan Romeo could not contain his absolute happiness: "Maybe for some people it is a surprise, but for me it is the happiest day of my day", said the Spaniard.

Romeo was aware of his chances, and therefore revealed that he spent more than a week recognizing the course of the time trial to make the best possible performance: "I have worked hard to achieve this. Few people know how hard I've worked, I've spent 10 days with my father studying the circuit".

The decisive moment of his victory came after passing the second intermediate point. Ivan Romeo surpassed Jan Christen's mark by 2 seconds, and started the flat stretch to the finish line where he simply flew, destroying any other record: "The course was very good for me, with the climb and the descent. When it was raining I thought it was going to be all faster, I didn't expect to have so much power at the end, it was amazing."