The Italian does it again
Filippo Ganna successfully defended his title as the men’s time-trial world champion. The 25-year-old beat both home favourites, Wout van Aert and Remco Evenepoel, in a superb finish. Van Aert finished the 43.3-km course in 47:53, 36 seconds up on Evenepoel. However, Ganna then beat van Aert by 6 seconds. The Ineos Grenadiers rider won after losing out on the European title to Stefan Küng 10 days earlier.
The Belgians were understandably disappointed. Wout van Aert finished second last year as well and was really honest in front of the TV cameras. “It’s not funny anymore to get second,” he said. “I feel a bit disappointed, not really about my performance because I’m actually quite happy with how everything went, I made no mistakes, my time trial was steady, I think, I was just beaten by a stronger rider, a specialist in this discipline.”
“I wanted to be on the podium but not second and third,” Remco Evenepoel stated about the Belgians losing again. “But if Filippo is competing, it’s going to be hard to beat him. It’s been three years we’ve been second in the TT champs and it feels like we’re not allowed to be world champion.”
Is it starting to be a curse for the Belgians? What do you think?
Men’s Time Trial World Championships: Knokke-Heist to Bruges (43.3KM)
1. Filippo Ganna (Italy) – 47:47
2. Wout van Aert (Belgium) + 6s
3. Remco Evenepoel (Belgium) + 44s
4. Kasper Asgreen (Denmark) + 46s
5. Stefan Küng (Switzerland) + 1:07
6. Tony Martin (Germany) + 1:18
7. Stefan Bissegger (Switzerland) + 1:26
8. Ethan Hayter (GBr) + 1:27
9. Edoardo Affini (Italy) + 1:49
10. Tadej Pogačar (Slovenia) + 1:53
Sweet!
How would you react?
What a legend
What do you think?
