Tadej Pogacar Challenge Delights Remco Evenepoel For Rwanda Road Worlds
Tadej Pogacar Challenge Delights Remco Evenepoel For Rwanda Road Worlds
Double Olympic champion Remco Evenepoel is expecting a tough challenge from Tour de France winner Tadej Pogacar when the 2025 UCI Road Worlds begins.
Double Olympic champion Remco Evenepoel is expecting a tough challenge from Tour de France winner Tadej Pogacar when the 2025 UCI Road World Championships begins in Kigali, Rwanda, on Sunday with the women's and men's time trials.
This year marks the first time the continent of Africa has hosted the cycling world championships.
Belgian Evenepoel is the reigning champion in the time trial and also triumphed in 2023.
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And while time-trialing is not Pogacar's main strength, he has been crowned Slovenian national champion three times and has won time trial stages at both the Tour de France and Giro d'Italia.
With twice former world champion Filippo Ganna of Italy -- who finished narrowly second to Evenepoel the last two years -- missing the event, the Belgian expects Pogacar to provide his main competition.
"I welcome that challenge, so much the better," Evenepoel said when interviewed at the airport on his way to Rwanda earlier this week for what will be the first time the worlds are held in Africa.
The reigning road race world champion Pogacar most notably claimed a time trial victory on the penultimate stage of the 2020 Tour de France to snatch overall victory away from compatriot Primoz Roglic.
But that was a mountain time trial, and Evenepoel is the man to beat against the clock on flatter courses, having never finished lower than third at the world championships.
He also beat Pogacar in a time trial at the Tour in July and is confident of keeping hold of the world champion's rainbow jersey.
"I want to win as many different jerseys as possible, and I have done everything I could possibly have done," said the 25-year-old Evenepoel said. "I've trained well, feel well, have good legs and a good vibe. I'm ready."
The men's 40-kilometer individual time trial climbs four hills, one of which is cobbled, but otherwise, it runs largely on newly laid roads around Kigali.
"It will be unique," said Evenepoel, before arriving in Rwanda. "I can't wait to see the place and the people."
The 2025 route is shorter than the usual 50 kilometers or so, but the roads are technically challenging -- often narrow, winding and with changing surface quality -- requiring skillful bike handling.
American Chloe Dygert Targets Treble
Defending champion, Australian Grace Brown, is absent from the women's time trial, having retired after winning Paris Olympic gold and the world title last year.
But gutsy American Chloe Dygert, who first won the world time trial title in 2019 and overcame a serious leg break to triumph again in 2023, is in Rwanda.
Third in 2024, Dygert faces a tough field that features two talented bike handlers in Dutch duo Demi Vollering and Anna van der Breggen.
Swiss all-arounder, Marlen Reusser, also should be in the mix, while Urska Zigart, who is Pogacar's girlfriend, will be on the start line for Slovenia.
The women's course is the same as the men's, minus the cobbled hill, making it shorter at 31.2 kilometers.
The championships last just over a week, culminating with the men's and women's road races next weekend.
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