World Champion Gal misses medal at U23 European Time Trial Championships; gold goes to unbeatable Álvarez once again

Not long ago, Ryan Gal pulled off a huge upset. The young Dutchman defeated all the top favourites at the U23 World Time Trial Championships in Canada and claimed the world title.

Could he repeat the feat in Slovenia? It was a shorter, but also much tougher course. So a European title wouldn’t be so easy to win.

There were plenty of contenders on this course. The Belgian Aldo Tallieu posted an excellent time and set the initial benchmark, but the Italian Roberto Capello beat it by five seconds.

By the first checkpoint, however, the standings were already becoming increasingly clear. Norwegians Jonas Hoydahl and Kasper Haugland were very fast there, but Matisse Van Kerckhove was even faster.

The Belgian was ten seconds faster after eight kilometers, demonstrating what it would take to contend for a medal. Héctor Álvarez, the Spanish European road champion, had, however, dipped below that time by three seconds. Nicolas Milesi, the World Championship silver medalist, and Gal had already fallen a bit further behind, but were still in contention for the medals.

Van Kerckhove did what he had to do at the second checkpoint, but Álvarez was simply too strong there. He had further extended his lead over the Belgian and seemed on his way to the title.

The battle for the bronze, however, was incredibly exciting: Haugland had less than a second left over on Gal, while Milesi was also right on his heels.

Van Kerckhove clocked a time of 28.47 minutes at the finish line and was assured of a medal. Haugland finished 16 counts behind him. Could Gal still beat that time and win a medal? The answer was no, because he fell short by one and a half seconds.

Álvarez lost a lot of ground in the final stretch, but still held a three-second lead over Van Kerckhove to claim the title.