Former Vuelta winner Horner questions Evenepoel's road race favourite status, and blames his time trial

The Belgian team has a rock-solid lineup at the World Cycling Championships in Montreal and, with Wout van Aert and Remco Evenepoel, two strong contenders for the world title. Evenepoel has already clinched his first rainbow jersey of the year with his fourth consecutive victory in the time trial, but Chris Horner says we shouldn’t use that as too much of a benchmark.

Evenepoel was by far the strongest in the time trial on the flat course around Montréal. From the first intermediate checkpoint to the finish, he was in a league of his own: second-place finisher Filippo Ganna lost nearly a minute to the Belgian. That, combined with his victory in the GP Québec, immediately establishes Evenepoel as the top favourite. Horner sees it that way too, but he does make an important point on his YouTube channel.

"Yes, he's in great shape heading into the World Cycling Championships, where he'll be the top favourite—I have no doubt about that," the American begins. “Back in my day, I knew I was going to lose time in the time trials, but sometimes I won. When I was in really, really good shape, I could also ride time trials. For time trial specialists, it works the other way around. They always win the time trials, but they have to be in top form to win the road race.”

The victory in the time trial says little about Evenepoel, but rather more about his rivals for Sunday, who also performed well in the time trial. “We’ll have to see if that off day at the GP Montréal will resurface during Sunday’s road race. Don’t place too much emphasis on the individual time trial, but do pay attention to what other riders like Paul Seixas and Isaac Del Toro did. They lost relatively little time to Evenepoel and showed that they’re in great shape.”

Horner sees Kigali as a test of Evenepoel’s potential. “I can’t make any guarantees about Remco Evenepoel’s form. We’ve seen on several occasions that the Belgian had to be careful, or else his legs would give out. Last year, he won the world time trial title in dominant fashion, but he couldn’t keep up with Tadej Pogačar—or the other riders ahead of him. That was with over 100 kilometers to go.”

Evenepoel did indeed get dropped when Pogačar attacked on a tough climb well before the finish. The Belgian then staged an impressive comeback, but a silver medal was the best he could manage. The Slovenian isn’t competing this time, but Horner still doesn’t know if Evenepoel is in good enough shape to claim his second road world title.

He also points out that the road race is longer than when Evenepoel won the GP Québec. “We’ll see if his performance in the time trial was just a sign that he’s a time trial specialist, or if he’s really in top form. Does he have the legs to power through more than 250 kilometers on the Montréal course? It’s the same climb as in the GP Montréal, but it’s much longer than those 215 kilometers.'