2026 European Championships Elite Men's Time Trial Preview | Evenepoel's absence may open the door for many favourites

Three days after the Men’s European Road Cycling Championships, the time trialists will be back in the saddle. Defending champion Remco Evenepoel, however, will not be among them, as he has chosen to focus entirely on preparing for the Tour of Lombardy this coming Saturday. Many others fancy their chances; IDL Pro Cycling looks ahead!

2025 Remco Evenepoel
2024 Edoardo Affini
2023 Joshua Tarling
2022 Stefan Bissegger
2021 Stefan Küng
2020 Stefan Küng
2019 Remco Evenepoel
2018 Victor Campenaerts
2017 Victor Campenaerts
2016 Jonathan Castroviejo

Just like the road races we've already seen, the town of Sencur—which is also home to the airport of the capital, Ljubljana—plays a central role in the European Elite Men's Time Trial Championships.

The decisive climb is the same, too, because just like in the road race, riders must tackle the Možjanca climb. At 2.1 kilometers long with a 10.2% gradient, that climb is quite challenging, especially in a time trial.

The first 5.8 kilometers are still flat, but then, after the first timing checkpoint, the Mozjanca climb begins. What makes the climb even tougher is that it isn’t immediately followed by a descent. The route continues to grind on for another three kilometers before it finally starts to drop.

With 7 kilometers to go, we then reach the bottom, after which the riders head toward the finish line on flat, not-too-technical roads. That brings the total distance to 22 kilometers, which is relatively short.

Weather
Wednesday is expected to be a nice day in Slovenia. With a light to moderate breeze, temperatures are expected to be around 20 degrees Celsius.

Times
Start: 3:15 p.m. GMT
Finish: TBD

Remco Evenepoel will not be competing —with an eye toward the Tour of Lombardy— which opens up opportunities for a number of other riders. Filippo Ganna and Paul Seixas, who finished second and third at the World Championships in Canada, will also not be there.

Primoz Roglic is in the field, and of the time trialists present, he may be the one best positioned to make the biggest move on the climbs. The experienced Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe rider, who won the time trial gold medal at the Tokyo Olympics, also has home-course advantage.

Jakob Soderqvist was on his way to a podium finish in Montreal until a crash dashed his hopes. The Swede, who won the 2025 U23 World Time Trial Championship, could reach another milestone in Slovenia.

While other former winners such as Edoardo Affini, Stefan Bissegger, Joshua Tarling, and Evenepoel are not participating, two-time winner Stefan Küng is. The Swiss rider, who will also be joined at the start by Mauro Schmid, recently won the Vuelta time trial.

Speaking of riders in top form: Ivan Romeo, the 2024 U23 world champion, finished in the top five in Sunday’s time trial. Frenchman Bruno Armirail, meanwhile, showedhe’s in top form with a lead-out at the Road World Championships in Montreal.

Among the Belgians, we considerIlan Van Wilder —who finished third at last year’s World Championships—and Sander De Pestel to be dark horses. The British team also has Ethan Hayter and Callum Thornley, two riders who could pull off a surprise on a good day.

Italy will start with Mattia Cattaneo and Marco Frigo, while we’d also like to mention the talented French rider Maxime Decomble, the seasoned Portuguese veteran Nelson Oliveira, the strong Danish riders Kasper Asgreen and Mikkel Bjerg, and the Dutch rider Sjoerd Bax. On a good day, they could all pull off a surprise!

Top Favorite: Primož Roglič (Slovenia)
Dark horses: Stefan Küng (Switzerland), Jakob Soderqvist (Sweden), Ivan Romeo (Spain), and Bruno Amirail (France)
Long shots: Ilan Van Wilder (Belgium), Callum Thornley, Ethan Hayter (Great Britain), Mauro Schmid (Switzerland), Maxime Decomble (France), and Kasper Asgreen (Denmark)