"If Tadej can beat Remco anywhere, it's on this course" - Former Dutch pro believes Pogacar can become time-trial World Champion

Tadej Pogacar and Remco Evenepoel are the two headliners of this year's World Championships, which miss out on many of the world's best due to the distance of travel, weather, brutal course and vaccination requirements. They will both be the main favourites for the road race and time-trial, and for the latter the battle will already take place this Sunday and betwen some, the Slovenian is going to be the main favourite.

"If you look at Montreal he was cycling around whistling. He's been ill, and they assumed he wouldn't be ill again next week. So his form should improve even further. Then he'll be cycling home laughing, of course," Bram Tankink, former Dutch pro, said in De Rode Lantaarn podcast. 

"Purely based on performance, I'd also say Pogacar at this point, but Remco also indicated that he was really fine and had truly focused on this World Championship time trial. If Tadej can beat Remco anywhere, it's on this course, because of the amount of elevation gain," he argues.

Th 40-kilometer long course in Kigali features several climbs, as well as descents, and is the most climber-oriented course in recent years, including a hilltop finish that follows a cobbled ascent. "You could see in the last time trial in the Tour that he was truly outstanding. I don't think it's illogical, but in terms of intrinsic time trial skills, Remco is obviously better."

"It's really very difficult. It's up and down everywhere. In Kigali, it's either up or down. It's built on hills, and the landscape is uneven. There's no valley you can ride through smoothly. It's just no different there".

And Tankink believes that there will be no-one coming close to the duo, specially with the absence of the likes of Jonas Vingegaard, Primoz Roglic, Filippo Ganna or João Almeida. "I don't think so in the time trial. Unless those two really fall through the cracks, which is almost unimaginable. It's mainly decapitated by the fact that Ganna isn't there."

"I'd go for Evenepoel," Tankink says, although he is not sure, because of the course and how it does favour Pogacar's climbing skills more than any other challenge against the clock this year.

He also commented on Primoz Roglic's presence in the road race, a wildcard, not a supporter for Pogacar he believes. "He's not going to be Pogacar's domestique. He's probably crazy. He can surprise me, because I've always had a certain sympathy for him."