Evenepoel completes quadruple with European TT title: Ganna second and surprising Unibet Tietema signing third

Three days ago, the entire cycling world was still focused on the World Championships in Rwanda, but barely three days later, part of the national teams were already back in France for the European Championships. It was quite a journey, as national coach Koos Moerenhout explained to us after the road race on the African continent.

“As staff, we fly to Brussels on Monday evening, and then we have to take the train to Brussels-South. From there, we take the TGV to Valence, and then we hope to be there by the end of Tuesday afternoon,” said the coach, who also experienced the necessary delays. Top favorite Evenepoel flew from Rwanda via Ethiopia to Marseille, and from there, he will drive to the European Championship location by car.

Turkey's Tahir Yigit was the first to start, but that's where we'll leave it. On this day—when all age groups ride one after the other—everything followed in quick succession, so it was soon time for Belgium's Alec Segaert, Switzerland's Stefan Bissegger, Germany's Max Walscheid, France's Rémi Cavagna, and the Netherlands' Dylan van Baarle.

Van Baarle set a good intermediate time at point one, where Danish Unibet Tietema Rockets newcomer Niklas Larsen was still able to stay ahead of him at that point. However, it was still time to wait for the big guns, including Daan Hoole, Ethan Hayter, João Almeida, Stefan Küng, Mads Pedersen, Joshua Tarling, Filippo Ganna, and, of course, Evenepoel.

At the first intermediate point, it became clear why they were classified later: Hayter, Hoole, and Mathias Vacek approached Larsen's time, while Pedersen, Ganna, and Tarling were faster. However, all these big names were blown away by Evenepoel, who, after seven kilometers, was already fourteen seconds faster than the number two. To be clear: the numbers two and ten at that point were closer together. Evenepoel caught up with Küng after only 14 kilometers.

At point 2, Ganna followed 25 seconds behind, while Tarling, Larsen, Hoole, Vacek, and Hayter kept roughly the same pace. The battle for bronze was therefore the most exciting of the day, if we were to conclude halfway through the intermediate points. Van Baarle was no longer able to compete after crossing the finish line battered and bruised on a regular bike following a crash.

At the finish line, Hoole was unable to beat the time set by the surprising Larsen, as was Hayter. Pedersen, Vacek, and Tarling also rode slower than the Dane, who, as an early starter, may have had some advantage from the slightly weaker headwind at that point. Ganna did manage to beat the time set by Larsen, who will be riding for Unibet Tietema Rockets next year.

Evenepoel, in turn, was 45 seconds faster than the Italian, completing his time trial quadruple.