Second career title for Soudal Quick-Step’s 25-year-old.
Remco Evenepoel powered to victory at the ITT National Championships, held in Brasschaat over a 40.5km flat course suited to the specialists of the discipline. The last starter Friday afternoon, Evenepoel gave absolutely no chance to the other riders, putting more than a minute into runner-up Florian Vermeersch (UAE Team Emirates) on the way to his 57th success in the Soudal Quick-Step jersey.
The World Champion, winner of this race back in 2022 and medalist on two more occasions, had a storming start and posted a sensational time of 10:26 at the first checkpoint to move to the top of the leaderboard. As the kilometers ticked down, Evenepoel continued to keep the speed and increase his lead over the others, setting a blistering time at the next splits before clocking a winning time of 44:43.
For Remco, this was the 20th victory of his career in a time trial – out of 44 starts – and the third of the year, after the ones he took at the Tour de Romandie and Critérium du Dauphiné.
“I’m happy with this win – my first since completing the altitude training camp – especially as it came on a hard course where you couldn’t really recover, only a bit on the technical sectors. I tried to keep a steady pace, and as I had a good feeling from the beginning, I gave my best. I am delighted with the outcome, with getting the jersey again and with winning the final ITT test before the Tour de France.”
“It’s a result that gives us even more confidence for Sunday. It will be a different parcours, with many strong riders at the start, but we go with a solid team to the road race, we have more cards to play there and we are motivated to get the most out of it”, Remco said after his victory.
Photo credit: ©Luc Claessen / Getty Images
