Sunday top favorite at World Championship, but time trials didn't always go smoothly for Evenepoel: "Into the grass twice"

Sunday finally marks the World Championship time trial. Since the competition may contain some uncertainties, among those uncertainties (it seems) there is one stable force to be found: Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-Quick Step) is the man to beat for the rainbow jersey. Still, the still only 24-year-old Belgian's time trials did not always go smoothly. In conversation with Sporza, his trainer at the time, he recalls Evenepoel's first time trial.

After Evenepoel stopped playing soccer in 2017, the 17-year-old Belgian immediately hopped on his bike. He appeared at the start of the Brabant junior time trial championships. "Remco had only competed in his first road race four days before," explained his former trainer Fred Vandervennet.

"At the Belgian Championships time trial, he was the only one who did not start with a time trial bike," Vandervennet continued. "But as always, Remco had only one ambition that day: to win." So, winning had to happen on a road bike. "Remco started somewhere in the middle of the pack and immediately tried to put himself in his most aerodynamic position," recalls his former trainer.

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Remco Evenepoel after winning the time trial at the 2024 Tour de France

First time trial "showed that Remco had the ability to become a great rider," says Vandervennet

Yet that very first trial did not go smoothly. "On two occasions, Remco missed his turn and ended up in the grass because he was simply riding too fast." Evenepoel rode a solid time trial; however, he finished tenth, 43 seconds behind the overall winner, Arne Marit. "That Remco finished only 25 seconds from the then talented Thibaut Ponsaerts (4th in that time trial) showed that Remco had the potential to become a great rider."

Evenepoel didn't have a team then, but his performance quickly changed. "That very day, Evenepoel agreed with Patrick Verschueren, team manager of the Forte Young Cycling Team. Verschueren was impressed that Evenepoel had achieved such a good result on a standard racing bike among all those guys with time trial bikes. Verschueren wanted to take the risk and wouldn't regret it. The Belgian former rider was spot on!"

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Evenepoel wins the final stage of Paris-Nice 2024 in his Belgian champion's jersey

Vandervennet thinks Evenepoel could have "finished on the podium" at the 2017 World Championship, but a year later, Remco takes the rainbow jersey after all.

That same year, the World Championship was held in Bergen. Evenepoel was not selected for the time trial by junior national coach Carlo Bomans, much to Vandervennet's dismay. "Of course, then I found it unfortunate that Carlo didn't let Remco start in the time trial because he could have finished on the podium on that course."

A year later—we are now in 2018—the Belgian federation did look at Evenepoel differently. The absolute time trial talent steamed to his first rainbow jersey in time trial supremacy at the Junior World Championships in Innsbruck. Two days later, Evenepoel also won the World Junior Road Race. That's when the ball really started rolling.

Meanwhile, the Belgian is the best time trialist in the peloton, as he is the man to beat in next Sunday's World Championship time trial. Evenepoel has already won in the discipline the European Championship (2019), the Belgian Championship (2022), a stage in the Vuelta (2022), two stages in the Giro (2023), the World Championship (2023), a stage in the Tour (2024), and gold at the Olympics (2024). Will the Belgian live up to his favorites on Sunday?  

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