July 27, 2024, 3:24 PM
July 27, 2024, 3:24 PM
The Belgian specialist Remco Evenepoel won Olympic gold in the time trial event on Saturday men’s race, which finished on the Pont Alexandre III in Paris, after beating Italian Filippo Ganna and his compatriot Wout Van Aert in the rain.
Gifted on the bike, Evenepoel can boast of having already won the most prestigious time trials in cycling: from the Tour de France, through the Vuelta a España and the Giro d’Italia, to the World Championships and the Olympic Games.
Evenepoel, current world champion In the race against the clock, he succeeds Slovenian Primoz Roglic, who is absent from Paris 2024, after having beaten his two podium companions by 14 and 25 seconds respectively.
The 24-year-old runner continues to fatten a list of achievements which will become legendary if he maintains this progression, which includes the overall victory in the 2023 Vuelta a España, two Liège-Bastogne-Liège races, the world title in the road race and, more recently, the first time trial in the last Tour.
And that the Belgian He had confessed that he could hardly sleep on Monday night, tired from the Tour, which he finished third on the podium last Sunday.
Just six days after the end of the ‘Grande Boucle’ in Nice, Evenepoel gave another exhibition in his favorite exercise, where its aerodynamic perfection makes it gain seconds compared to the rest.
– Against the clock… and against the rain –
He was not intimidated by the wet asphalt either. and the persistent rain over the French capital, nor on a surface that he had criticised before the race for its bumps.
Behind, Italian Ganna miraculously avoided a fall after having brushed against the safety barriers.
Wout Van Aert, for his part, also sealed a great performance which marks his return to the limelight after having suffered several fractures in his ribs, collarbone and sternum following a serious fall last European spring.
The two Belgians are among the favouritess for the online race, which will take place on Saturday, August 3.
This Saturday was the first free attendance test for the public, who were not daunted by the rain and gathered in large numbers at several of the most emblematic sites in Paris, on an identical route for the men’s and women’s events.
Among women, Gold went to Australian Grace Brown, who beat Britain’s Anna Henderson, silver, and the American and big favorite, Chloe Dygert, bronze.
Brown, runner-up in the world championship last year and who was among the three favourites for victory, recorded a great time of 39 minutes 38 seconds 24 hundredths to complete the 32.4 kilometres on a rain-soaked asphalt that caused several falls, from the start on the Esplanade des Invalides to the finish on the Pont Alexandre III, over the Seine.
This is the first Olympic gold for the 32-year-old Australian, who He beat his two companions by more than a minute and a half on the podium. Brown had been seven seconds off the podium in the same event at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics.
