Toujours
And a bit of a prognostigatory mixed bag at the world time trial championships
So my world time trial championship predictions were…a bit of a mixed bag.
I predicted both winners—Remco Evenepoel and Grace Brown1—and even got the entire women’s podium, but not in the right order. I had Chloe Dygert over Demi Vollering, when in reality it was the other way around. Brown has been near-unbeatable against the clock this season, but it’s a minor disappointment that Dygert isn’t on the same level. She views it the same way, telling Cycling News that she hasn’t been healthy enough to find that extra gear. It’s an odd thing to say for someone who’s won Olympic gold and Olympic and world championship bronze in the past two months, but it makes sense when you remember how dominant she was circa 2019.
And it’s not just the crash at the 2020 world championship that’s got her down—she’s either gotten sick or hurt every few months for the past four years. Not enough to build up the base of fitness required to beat Grace Brown against the clock. Getting back there is her goal for 2025, and for patriotic and aesthetic reasons I hope she does.
On the men’s side, well, turns out Filippo Ganna showed up after all, replacing Mattia Cattaneo on the provisional startlist I was working from. And Ganna really showed up.
Evenepoel was fastest in the first three sectors out of four, but despite all the climbing Ganna—who’s eaten bowls of pasta that weigh more than Remco does—was within 10 seconds in all three sectors. And on the home stretch, a straight, flat coastline dash that favored the big Italian as much as a parcours can, Ganna took time out of his rival. A little under 13 seconds, in fact. But he needed 19, and had to settle for silver.
Not only did Evenepoel have to deal with a strong challenge from Ganna, he managed to weather several technical malfunctions. He dropped his chain as he was rolling into the starting gate, then once he got underway, he looked down at his power meter and got a NO SALE. Part of what makes these guys so consistent is that they can ride to a specific power output. I know what that’s like, from staring at the wattage meter on my Peloton screen and screaming out for the merciful embrace of death.2 Except Remco’s tucked into a ball like a pillbug, churning out enough wats to power a microwave for an hour.
I promise I don’t want to keep going on about Dygert’s 2019 world championship ride, but she rode that race without a power meter by choice, which seemingly liberated into a hitherto inaccessible state of transcendent rage. Remco was not thus affected, and if anything seems to have found the experience disconcerting. Nevertheless, even playing it by ear he was able to hold of Ganna to retain the rainbow bands.
The GC guys I touted as threats—Brandon McNulty and Primož Roglič—were nonfactors, finishing 10th and 12th, respectively. McNulty was good on the climbs and the flat but shipped 39 seconds to Evenepoel in the third sector, which included the descent. His trade teammate, Jay Vine, was in line for a medal after three sectors, but crashed badly and had to settle for fifth place and a finish line photo that looks like the famous Andrew W.K. album cover.
Edoardo Affini put in a monster final sector—just four seconds off Ganna, nine seconds ahead of anyone else, and 20 seconds ahead of eventual fourth-place finisher Josh Tarling—to win bronze.
Absent from this event was recidivist world and Olympic time trial podium finisher Wout van Aert, who’s still recovering from crash injuries suffered at the Vuelta. It’s been a weird and frustrating season for the 30-year-old Belgian, whom I write about probably more than any other rider—definitely more than any non-American rider—because he’s such a weird and frustrating figure.
And now he’s gone and done something even more fascinating.