KIGALI (Reuters) -Remco Evenepoel had barely crossed the finish line before declaring he would try to retain his world time trial title next year and in the process make history.
The 25-year-old Belgian secured a hat-trick of world championships with a dominant win in Sunday’s individual time trial, blitzing the field to win by more than a minute through the streets of the Rwandan capital.
He joins Australia’s Michael Rogers (2003-05) and Germany’s Tony Martin (2011-13) as those who have previously won three in a row.
“The list I have joined are two pretty impressive guys in Tony and Michael so it's a big step for me to step up there and, yeah, I guess next year I have to go for another one, because I want to be the first to get four in a row,” Evenepoel said.
He had been expected to be in a tight tussle with Tour de France winner Tadej Pogacar, who had set his sights on winning both Sunday’s time trial and next weekend’s men’s road race.
But Pogacar was no match for Evenepoel, who caught him two kilometres from the end on the cobbles of Cote de Kimihurura. He already had a 45-second advantage over the Slovenian at the first time check after 10.6km and by the third time check, after 31.6km, had stretched his advantage to almost 90 seconds as Pogacar’s ambitions faded.
Asked what went through his mind as he had Pogacar in his sights, Evenepoel said: “I think on a day like today, it doesn't matter who it is, but I just wanted to push as hard as possible from the first climb on, then I just tried to recover as much as possible in the descent, and of course, on the cobbles, when I saw that I was coming closer quite quickly, I knew I had to push through.”
Victory also offered some redemption after a tough year for Evenepoel, who went into the Tour de France with crash injuries and withdrew on stage 14 in the mountains, describing it as one of "the rawest and most vulnerable" moments of his career.
Next year’s world championships are set for Montreal.
(Writing by Mark Gleeson in Cape Town; Editing by Toby Davis)
