Belgium’s Remco Evenepoel was crowned Olympic champion on Saturday after a spectacular performance in the men’s individual time trial at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, which took place on a rainy afternoon through the streets of the French capital on a 32.4-kilometer course.
Evenepoel celebrated his first Olympic title in the individual time trial and brought the gold medal to Belgium, beating Italian Filippo Ganna, silver medalist, by 15 seconds and his compatriot Wout van Aert, bronze medalist, by 25 seconds.
Evenepoel is the only cyclist in history with a rainbow jersey (world champion) in the road and cross-country races, and Olympic gold in the time trial. “This is the last time trial championship I had to complete (he was already world and European gold). Now I have achieved everything I could achieve in that discipline. I was surprised to do it in a terrain that I was not at 100%, against rivals who had prepared very well,” expressed the monarch.
“I didn’t feel 100% either. What I missed was freshness, but I still had to finish. It’s very special. I can’t describe the feeling I had on the podium. It’s a magical moment in my life. We watched the women’s race before going into the warm-up and saw the crashes, so we decided not to take risks in the corners and push a little harder on the straights, and it was a good strategy.
“With a third place in the Tour de France and a win here, fatigue doesn’t matter, motivation and positive feelings override everything. Does this bode well for the cross-country race? We’ll see. Let’s enjoy this first one. In terms of sporting career, I put it at number one,” concluded the Belgian, after making history for another day.
Two-time British time trial champion Josh Tarling was fourth after suffering a puncture, losing precious seconds. The top 5 was rounded out by American Brandon McNulty.
The men’s time trial featured 35 riders who started with 90-second intervals, on a flat course that was not too technical on paper, but was complicated by the wet conditions, which caused several crashes among the competitors.
Olympic Games ME – CRI (Olympics)
París – París (32,4 km)
| 1 | EVENEPOEL Remco | Bélgica | 0:36:12 |
| 2 | GANNA Filippo | Italia | 0:15 |
| 3 | VAN AERT Wout | Bélgica | 0:25 |
| 4 | TARLING Joshua | Gran Bretaña | 0:27 |
| 5 | MCNULTY Brandon | Estados Unidos | 1:04 |
| 6 | BISSEGGER Stefan | Suiza | 1:26 |
| 7 | OLIVEIRA Nelson | Portugal | 1:31 |
| 8 | KÜNG Stefan | Suiza | 1:35 |
| 9 | SCHACHMANN Maximilian | Alemania | 1:38 |
| 10 | BJERG Mikkel | Dinamarca | 1:43 |