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Tobias Foss on Becoming Time Trial World Champ: “If I were a top 10 today, I would be really satisfied”

By Monica Buck

The Norwegian blinked, shook his head and laughed in disbelief. He slapped his face a few times to make sure he wasn’t dreaming. The last of the big names just crossed the finish line and he became the first-ever Norwegian to win the world time-trial title. Finally, Tobias Foss let out a roar in celebration. It will be him wearing the rainbow colours next season.

“This is unbelievable,” Foss said at the finish line. “If I were a top 10 today, I would be really, really satisfied and even top five I was hoping for. We did really good coaching and we prepared really well, so it was a perfectly executed race. To wear that jersey will be really special and I will try to honour it as good as I can. I will, for sure, enjoy it as much as possible.”

“It was unexpected,” he later admitted. “I knew my shape was strong, coming in from Canada, putting in some nice work, [and] training has gone well in the past two months. I was really hoping to go deep today. Good preparation, good execution, and in the end, there was a gold. That’s unreal.”

The 25-year-old beat the likes of Remco Evenepoel, Tadej Pogačar, Filippo Ganna and Stefan Küng.

“I could cry – and not out of joy,” Stefan Küng said. “I’ve been circling around this big win for quite some time. I’ve been second, I’ve been third. I’ve been beaten by Remco a few times, by Ganna, by all the other guys. I know how to beat them – I’ve beaten them all in the past.”

He beat them again but not the Norwegian. Will the surprise wins continue at the UCI Road World Championships? What do you think?

2022 World Championship Men’s ITT results

  1. Tobias Foss (Norway)         40:02
  2. Stefan Küng (Switzerland)  + 3 seconds
  3. Remco Evenepoel (Belgium)           + 9 seconds
  4. Ethan Hayter (Great Britain)           + 40 seconds
  5. Stefan Bissegger (Switzerland)       + 47 seconds
  6. Tadej Pogačar (Slovenia)    + 48 seconds
  7. Filippo Ganna (Italy)           + 56 seconds
  8. Nelson Oliveira (Portugal)  + 59 seconds
  9. Yves Lampaert (Belgium)    + 01:09
  10. Bruno Armirail (France)    + 01:10