World Time Trial Championships

Filippo Ganna beats Wout Van Aert by just six seconds to win his second rainbow jersey with Remco Evenepoel in third, given Belgium two medals in their home championships

World Time Trial Championships

Filippo Ganna: “I think in one week my condition improved after the short camp at altitude, then I did the European Championships but my legs didn’t feel very good and I didn’t know if I could arrive at the Worlds in good shape. When I woke up this morning, I had a good feeling in the legs and to defend this jersey for me is very important. . It’s a dream to win again and to defend this jersey. I hope to honour it again for another year.”

Ethan Hayter: “There is a bit of room for improvement and I’m still recovering from the Tour of Britain, but I’m pretty happy. I’ve done a few good time trials this year… This time trial was probably too flat for me. I like one where you can go over and under with pacing and really punch over the climbs, I’ve always been good at time trials, but you don’t do many at junior and under 23 level. That is one of the longest time trials I’ve done. You kind of just have to tuck in and go into your own world. I just did my thing and went as fast as I could.”

Wout can Aert (Silver): “I was beaten by Ganna. He’s a very good time trialist and even more of a time trial specialist than I am. Seeing how close I end up behind him I should really just be happy. It’s a top result, but I was very close to that rainbow jersey. That makes it a little bit disappointing.”

Van Aert will be the leader next week in the road race of the World Championships in the Flemish town of Leuven. “This week I’m going to prepare myself well for the road race next Sunday. I have a lot of confidence in it. Today the crowd was really fantastic. It was great to see people standing along the side of the road. I think we will see the same scenes next week. I’m really looking forward to that.”

Remco Evenepoel (bronze) : “I am really happy, because I got the most out of this course. I came here having learned a valuable lesson in Trento, where I had a powerful start and paid for that towards the end. This time, I paced myself better and this allowed me to increase the tempo in the second part of the race, which made the difference at the end. It’s a great satisfaction to be on the podium in this company. I didn’t have an easy year, but I kept believing and working hard, and that paid off today”, said Remco, who less than two weeks ago took third also at the European ITT Championships.

Tony Martin: “It was difficult for a few seconds when I was on the starting podium and heard the reaction of the people when my name was called. Then I could focus on the time trial again, but it was definitely an emotional day for me. I enjoyed today with all these great fans along the course. It’s a great way to end my great career, but first I’m going to give it all in the Mixed Relay on Wednesday.”

1 Filippo Ganna Italy 47:47
2 Wout Van Aert Belgium + 06
3 Remco Evenepoel Belgium + 44
4 Kasper Asgreen Denmark + 46
5 Stefan Küng Switzerland + 1:07
6 Tony Martin Germany + 1:18
7 Stefan Bissegger Switzerland + 1:26
8 Ethan Hayter Great Britain + 1:27
9 Edoardo Affini Italy + 1:49
10 Tadej Pogacar Slovenia + 1:53

16 Daniel Bigham Great Britain + 2:11

https://firstcycling.com/race.php?r=27&y=2021