Remco Evenepoel shows up and is declared world champion

He arrives at a good moment after his victory in the Vuelta a España and is always one of the good candidates to shine in the one-day test. the Belgian Remco Evenepoel He did not miss his chance to express himself this Sunday world champion of road cycling after mastering the online test debated in Wollongong (Australia).

In just 22 years, the young Belgian prodigy, who signed an amazing year, took another step in his quest for legend. He did it the way he wanted. with a bold attack to be alone many kilometers from the end and created a relentless rhythm that did not leave its rivals with the ability to respond. In all the pools as one of the great candidates for victory, Evenepoel fulfilled them “a la Evenepoel”, with an impressive display, to write his name among the cycling greats wearing the rainbow jersey.

Starting in Helensburgh, 266.9 kilometers They decided the champion after a battle of almost seven hours on the bike and centered on twelve laps of the seventeen kilometer circuit with ramps of Mount Pleasant (1.1 kilometers to 7.7%) as the biggest rival. Before entering this circuit comes the difficult climb to Mount Keira14.2 kilometers, although it was in the last kilometer that Evenepoel reigned to become the champion.

with a period of 6:16:08, Evenepoel He forced himself to go it alone after an attack in the last kilometers from a big breakaway. Behind, with the Belgian already winning at the finish line, a sprint for the medals was contested between a group of well-known names in which the French Christophe Laporte took the silver and the australian Michael Matthews won the bronze medal. So they left another notable Belgian without a medal, Wout van Aert (fourth) on a day when Ivan García Cortina it is eleventh and Tadej Pogacar finished nineteenth.

In this way, Evenepoel has crowned a fantastic year, based on a huge spike in form since the summer. Remco arrived as one of the big names in Australia after his success in Back to Spain a few weeks ago and it has been shown on individual time trial at the World Cup, where the bronze medal hangs. A few days later, he raised the goal of becoming world champion in the online event and capped off a great campaign in which he also won the Liège-Bastogne-Liège and the San Sebastian Classicamong other hits.

It was in a trial in which, with very marked favorites for victory, one of them was left deeply moved before the start. The race was marked in the early stages by an incident involving the Dutchman Mathieu van der Poel In the hotel. According to ‘VeloNews’, two teenagers bothered Van der Poel during his break and there was an altercation in which the runner allegedly pushed the two children. The Police arrested Van der Poel and, despite the fact that the runner could get out of the test after the early morning release, he was summoned to testify before the court on Tuesday. emotionally touched by what happened, Van der Poel was abandoned after thirty kilometers of testing and now he must remain on Australian soil until his case is resolved.

Moments before Van der Poel’s abandonment, a few kilometers after the start, a the first group of escapees. Brazilian Nicolas Sessler, Israeli Guy Sagiv, Slovakian Juraj Sagan, Slovenian Jaka Primozic, Swiss Simon Pellaud, Canadian Pier-André Coté, New Zealander James Fouché, Czech Michael Kurkle , the Polish Lukasz Owsian and the Latvian Emils Liepins broke away from the main group before climbing Mount Keira, where France pulled the peloton to reduce their units as much as possible.

It was on the descent that the first selection of favorites took place. Tadej Pogacar, Wout van Aert or Romain Bardet they are in a group where they also let themselves be seen Marc Soler or Roger Adriaabout two and a half minutes from escaping. Evenepoelmeanwhile, was left in the second group with Julian Alaphilippeover four minutes behind the leaders.

Despite the desire to Pogacar to further choose the pursuing group, his traveling companions decided to reserve forces and all of them favored the union of all favourites to stay about five minutes behind the front group. The former was joined by Frenchman Pavel Sivakov, Irishman Joe O’Connor, Australian Lucas Plapp, Belgian Pieter Serry and Italian Samuele Batistella.

Incisor Evenepoel

About seventy kilometers from the end Evenepoel moved up a slope to pick off the group of favorites and clip Van Aert and Pogacar. Belgium and France worked together so that the difference grew gradually to a two kilometer advantage in a main group that caught up with the escapees to become the leader of the race with an evenepoel was released.

The battle is between Remcoahead, and Pogacar behind, with Van Aert aware of the good option presented to his teammate. The Slovenian tried to reduce the climbing distances on the circuit’s Mount Pleasant with forty kilometers to go, but Evenepoel’s constants were torn They prevented the double winner of the Tour from having options to enter the race.

In one of those surges, Evenepoel was left alone at the front of the race with Lutsenko, which he dropped less than thirty kilometers from the finish on another climb up Mount Pleasant. ANDThe Belgian left alone in a battle against the clock, after gradually opening rents to his rivals and never giving up in his quest to dominate the race.

The Kazakh, meanwhile, was chased down a few kilometers later by a steady run by a group of Pogacar and Van Aert who, with Evenepoel unmoved, caught at least the Belgian’s pursuers to enter the fight for silver and copper. to him, Laporte took second place, with Matthews thirdto leave Van Aert (fourth), Matteo Trentin (fifth), Alexander Kristoff (sixth) or Peter Sagan (seventh) on the podium. Ivan García Cortina is done with eleventh place.

Of course, he was looking forward to celebrating his victory Evenepoel. The Belgian is done 2:21 before his solo exhibition and proved his world title to crown a magical year and even the new world champion of the road test.

After his serious accident in August 2020, Evenepoel managed to get up to sign a great 2021, although last year, despite notable victories and three medals between the European and World Cup, the great success that that escaped him. This 2022, he wins on all fronts: weeklong tours, grand one-day races, monuments and grand tours. Also, today, in the World Cup: Remco Evenepoel will bring the rainbow to 2023 after its relentless attack to try to catch up top of the world In just 22 years, after an exhibition to remember, he is already here.

World Championship men’s road race classification

1. Remco Evenepoel (Belgium) 6:16:08
2. Christophe Laporte (France) in 2:21
3. Michael Matthews (Australia) id.
4. Wout van Aert (Belgium) id.
5. Matteo Trentin (Italy) id.
6. Alexander Kristoff (Norway) id.
7. Peter Sagan (Slovakia) id.
8. Alberto Bettiol (Italy) id.
9. Ethan Hayter (Great Britain) id.
10. Mattias Skjelmose Jensen (Denmark) id.
11. Iván García Cortina (Spain) id.
…
19. Tadej Pogacar (Slovenia) id.
22. Romain Bardet (France) id.
24. Alexey Lutsenko (Kazakhstan) id.
51. Julian Alaphilippe (France) in 3:08
75. Jesus Ezquerra (Spain) at 6:20
77. Roger Adrià (Spain) id.
82. Marc Soler (Spain) at 9:31
87. Eduard Prades (Spain) in 10:23
Dropouts: Urko Berrade (Spain), Gotzon Martín (Spain) and Oier Lazkano (Spain)