It was a remarkable performance for the reigning world ITT champion, considering the more than 52,000 meters of climbing he endured over three weeks in the Tour, and it left no doubt that he is the preeminent time trial rider of his generation and one of the best of all time. But the outspoken Soudal–Quick Step rider was far from happy before the race, criticizing the course, a loop that began and ended at the ornate Pont Alexandre III and passed a number of the city’s most popular tourist sites, such as the Notre-Dame Cathedral.
“Quite some beautiful sightseeing,” Evenepoel said, “but the road surface is pretty bad in the beginning and in the end. So that might be a problem if you have black spots in front of your eyes in the last kilometers. It’s not so nice.”
But it turned out to be very nice for the 2023 ITT world champion, who shared his joy with his hundreds of thousands of followers on the site formerly known as Twitter. “There is no bigger honor than bringing the Golden [sic] Medal home and to become an Olympic Champion,” he wrote. “So much emotions going through my body. Thank you so much to everyone for the incredible support. Big congrats to Wout and Filippo for their medal!! That makes 2 for Belgium.”
Ganna was disappointed with his silver medal. “It’s not the medal I wanted but I was beaten by a ‘fuoriclasse’, a real champion. I gave it everything but I’m not great in the rain. I chased my dreams, to go for it and I did the best I could,” the classy Italian said.
However, Ganna could be happy that he finished the race at all, as he briefly lost control of his bike on a slippery corner, but managed to keep himself from crashing into the barriers. He saved his best for the last third of the race, making up 15 seconds on van Aert and more than a second on Evenepoel, despite the slip.
For van Aert, the bronze medal represents a welcome return to form after a year beset by injury. “I’m really proud to have a medal again,” said the 29-year-old Visma–Lease a Bike rider, who won a silver medal in the 2021 Tokyo Olympics road race.
“It feels to me a bit as a surprise, because in the last few seasons it was harder for me to compete against real specialists. I was ambitious but I thought there were at least three guys stronger than me.… it makes me really happy to be in the mix again.”
The 2022 Tour de France Škoda Green Jersey winner benefited from a daring equipment change. He decided to use double disc brakes on the bike and said after the race that the decision was based on wind tunnel tests that showed they were 17 watts faster than a normal time trial wheel. “That’s quite a lot,” he said. Other riders had been skeptical of his decision because double disc wheels made the bike more difficult to handle, especially on corners and in the rain. But van Aert, who also rides cyclocross, encountered no problems.
But shed a tear for Joshua Tarling, who finished fourth, 27 seconds behind the winner. The 20-year-old Welshman suffered a front-tire puncture around the 11km mark and, counting how long it took him to come back up to speed, lost enough time to deprive him of at least the bronze medal, perhaps even the silver.
Tarling was devastated by the mishap. “It sucks,” he told Eurosport after the race. “Everybody put a lot of effort in. It’s annoying now, but the road race is coming.”
Tarling will face off again against Evenepoel and van Aert in the men’s road race on August 3, in which the road race world champion Mathieu van der Poel will be the favorite.
Olympics ITT Final Standings:
1 Remco Evenepoel, Belgium 36:12
2 Filippo Ganna, Italy +15 secs.
3 Wout van Aert, Belgium + 25
4 Joshua Tarling, Great Britain + 27
5 Brandon McNulty, USA + 1:04
6 Stefan Bisseger, Switzerland + 1:26
7 Nelson Oliveira, Portugal + 1:31
8 Stefan Küng, Switzerland + 1:35
9 Max Schachmann, Germany + 1:38
10 Mikkel Bjerg, Denmark + 1:43