For the third year in a row, Remco Evenepoel will be leaving a World Championships with a Rainbow Jersey win added to his glistening palmares. On Sunday afternoon, the Belgian powered to an impressive victory ahead of Filippo Ganna in the individual time trial.
Prior to his efforts getting underway hoever, there was drama for the double Olympic champion. As he sat getting mentally prepared in the start ramp, the 24-year-old's chain came off, causing a momentary panic as both Evenepoel himself and his mechanic frantically raced to get things back in working order before the beeps began to count down.
"It was a pretty tough day for me, my chain dropped one minute before the start. Then I took the start, had no power meter at all since the start, so it was a pure time trial on feeling," Evenepoel explained in his post-race interview afterwards. "I think, without having the power meter, it was pretty difficult to keep the pace in the last five kilometres, but in a TT, especially in the World Championships, it doesn’t matter what the time gap is. I saw my time in green, and I felt like celebrating."
Not that that mattered in the end though as despite the panic, an assured Evenepoel performed faultlessly on the course. "It was very difficult because I had to push, but I could never go over the limit because I didn't know what [power] I was doing exactly," Evenepoel said. "It must have been maybe the most difficult time trial of my life. But in the end, if you want to win, you have to feel your body as well. Things like that happen. In the end, we won, that's the most important thing."
Next up, another chance at history awaits for Evenepoel as he has a unique chance to claim a double-double, and add another Rainbow Jersey in the road race.
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