After winning his second consecutive time trial world championship, Remco Evenpoel held an impromptu celebration at the Belgian Hotel in Wetzikon on Sunday evening.

“The week of the World Championships got off to a good start. Now the real work begins.”

At the 2024 Paris Olympics, Evenepoel followed up his time trial victory with an incredible solo victory in the road race.

Indeed, since the time trial was first adopted in Agrigento in 1994, no elite men's time trial world champion has won a road race later that week; at Boyaca in 1995, Miguel Indurain won the Tunja time Tunja, and came closest to winning the time trial, but finished the following Sunday with a silver medal behind his compatriot Abraham Orono.

Evenepoel will not be daunted by the precedent of the last 30 years of world championship time trials, having won the junior age group double in Innsbruck in 2018. The fact that the two competitions are nowadays a week apart, as opposed to the three days they used to be, should in theory make his task easier.

“I can recover well in the next two days and then have two good days of training on Wednesday and Thursday,” Evenpoel said in the mixed zone after his time trial victory. And then I will recover for Sunday.”

Evenepoel thanked the Belgian athletes for ordering pizza for him on Sunday evening. In his speech, he also playfully urged federation president Tom Van Damme to convince national coach Sven Van Tulenhout not to step down after this world championship. Evenpoel quipped, “If I were the federation, I would negotiate again.”

Vanhollenhout, previously a cyclo-cross coach, took over the elite men's road team in 2021. Under his guidance, Evenpoel won the world championship road race in Wollongong in 2022, two time trial world titles, and of course two Olympic gold medals.

At Vanthourenhout's first World Championships in Leuven in 2021, he had to try to strike a balance between the ambitions of Evenpoel and Wout Van Aert. With Van Aert sidelined this year due to injury, the Belgian team's road racing challenge will revolve around Evenpoel. Speaking in Zurich on Sunday evening, Evenpoel admitted that winning the time trial would mean success in the world championships.

“It took some of the pressure off me,” he said. Now that I have this jersey again, I can relax a little bit more for next Sunday. I'm confident. My legs are there.

“I can still improve a little bit for next Sunday, like I did at the Olympics. Next week I will try to relax as much as possible and take care of my body, in a good way. I want to be ready to perform well again next Sunday.”

The elite men's time trial will start from the Oerlikon stadium, the finish line of the Züri Metzgette, and the demanding course of the elite men's road race features terrain that was once used as the route for the classic race but was unfortunately discontinued.

“It's kind of a mix between a lighter version of Lombardy and Liège,” Evenpoel said. 'Of course, the lighter weight riders have a bit of an advantage, but the classics can also survive if they have a good day.' We might expect a special race that can go in many directions."

He said.

With an overall race elevation gain of 4,470 meters, the grand finale will consist of seven laps of a 27-km circuit, crossing the demanding climb of Vitikon. Tadej Pogaczal won last week's Grand Prix de Montréal, underscoring his popularity. Evenpoel, on the other hand, is arguably the only rider to back himself in a head-to-head matchup with the Slovenian.

“I think it's clear for me. It's about staying focused, not losing energy at the start, and finding the right moment.

“It's an urban circuit, so I'll try to read the race as much as possible. It's not like last year [in Glasgow], but it's still an urban circuit with a steep kicker.

“Normally it should stay dry, so that's already a positive. But it could go in a lot of different directions; it could be one rider finishing alone, it could be two or three, it could be a group of ten. It could really go in all directions. We haven't seen any local laps yet, but we will be doing some reconsults in the next week. Of course, we are hoping for a long, tough race like Paris.”

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