Paris Olympics 2024: Belgian Remco Evenepoel continues winning streak in cycling

Remco Evenepoel had won the UCI World champion titles in 2022 and 2023.

Remco Evenepoel won the men’s individual time trial (ITT) on Saturday, ahead of Filippo Ganna (Italy) and his Belgian countryman Wout van Aert.

Following Australia’s Grace Brown’s success in the women’s individual time trial, Belgium’s Remco Evenepoel took gold in the men’s event, on the first day of cycling medal competition at the Paris Olympics 2024.

An average speed of 53.7 km/h saw the Belgian star cover the 32.4km course – from the Esplanade des Invalides to the Pont Alexandre III Bridge, passing by Vincennes, its woods and the Jacques Anquetil velodrome –in a time of 36’12’’16, to get the better of Italy’s Filippo Ganna (+14’’) and his fellow Belgian star, Wout van Aert (+25’’).

The rain that poured on the opening ceremony and on the women’s ITT also affected the men’s event, putting an increased focus on the riders’ handling skills.

The first male rider to start, half an hour after Brown’s success, was Amir Ansari, who was born in Iran, grew up in Afghanistan, fled to Sweden and is now part of the International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) Refugee Olympic Team.

Italy’s Alberto Bettiol, the fourth rider off the start ramp, took the hot seat before he was overthrown by Ireland’s Ryan Mullen, who was himself soon beaten by Czech Republic’s Mathias Vacek.

Also Read: Paris Olympics 2024: Grace Brown powers to first cycling gold

The intensity kept increasing as the the bigger names in the speciality against the clock rolled down the ramp. Great Britain’s wonderkid Joshua Tarling displayed his power but suffered a puncture, while the USA’s Magnus Sheffield went down.

No such incident hampered the effort of Wout van Aert, who took the provisional best time and saw Tarling finish only 2’’ behind him. Ganna narrowly escaped a crash of his own and his effort was enough to be faster than Van Aert.

But there was no containing Remco Evenepoel, who adds the Olympic Games glory to his winning record after his UCI World Champion titles (road race in 2022 and individual time trial in 2023).

“I cannot describe the feeling I had on the podium”, Remco Evenepoel said, after he was awarded the gold medal. “It’s a magical moment in my life. We watched the women’s race before we got into our warm-up and we saw the crashes so we decided not to take any risks in the corners and to push a bit more on the straights, and it was a good strategy.

With a third spot in the Tour de France and a victory here, tiredness doesn’t matter, the motivation and the positive feelings overtake everything.”

For more updates, follow Khel Now on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram; download the Khel Now Android App or IOS App and join our community on Whatsapp & Telegram