The individual time trial of Glasgow It ended a handful of hours ago and the commentary of Adriano Malori, Now our time-tripping specialist. And this time too, "Malo" goes straight to checkers. «The surprise is the junior (19-year-old Joshua Tarling, ed.), but the news is that Remco Evenepoel he's a monster. In one year he won a world championship, the Vuelta, the Liège, and now this world championship again. For me, he and Pogacar are the strongest riders at the moment. I didn't include Vingegaard because he's not that complete."
As we have seen and just read Remco Evenepoel won the world time trial, followed by Filippo Ganna at 12" and third this nineteen year old Englishman Joshua Tarling at 48”, who won the world time trial last year… but among the juniors!
Adriano, an almost junior among the pros. Actually he could have run among the under 23s…
It was undoubtedly a great surprise. I was impressed by his management of the effort. Okay, he won the national time trial title and we know that in England that's not a trivial thing, given the time they dedicate to it, but this was a different stage. Goofy must know that he has a rival coming in the future.
Adriano, you yourself often tell us how much experience counts in long time trials, but the numbers speak for themselves: 47 kilometers and 19 years old.
True. And as I said, I'm impressed. Especially by its final twist. It was a real time trial plus this climb: it wasn't easy to combine the two. The riders arrived exhausted, but he was pushing hard and managed his strength well. You can see he's in the Ineos-Grenadiers. Like Goofy, Bigham, Thomas…
When you ran at home, did you know the route better than anyone else?
Absolutely. You could see he'd tried it over and over again. This aspect was evident in some corners, especially the one after the intermediate. He took it flat out and stayed in position. Remco took his hands off the prosthetics and Ganna had a little uncertaintyAnd the same goes for the last climb. You have to be "present" to do it that way. Especially on the cobblestones.
Let's move on to Evenepoel. The Belgian, like Ganna and others, had a radio on his chest. An aerodynamic choice?
An aerodynamic and functional choice at the same time. These leotards are very tight and pull a lot on the shoulders, the widest part. At that point, on the chest, the radio is a little more comfortable. The riders do their tests and if it doesn't bother them when breathing they place it there.
Remco and that gesture towards the flagship: how did it go?
Remco is very confident, but he also loses his temper. After the first intermediate lap (where he was behind Ganna, ed.), their observations showed he was ahead, and they must have said something to him over the radio, and he wanted to tell them to stay calm: "I'll take care of it." But such gestures are nothing new to him. Remember at the 2021 European Championships when he was left with Sonny (Colbrelli, ed.) on his wheel? When the race doesn't go as he says he loses his temper.
And for the rest?
My big favorite was Ganna. It was his time trial, he didn't go slowly even on the final climb where he was just a little slower than Evenepoel (2″, ed.) despite his size, but he lacked the rest. I think that the wind had a bit of an impact on his performance. For long stretches it was lateral, you could see it from the way the riders pedaled and from the way their bikes moved. But if he "jogged" the bike of a Remco, which is small, Imagine what a Ganna who is over 90 meters tall must have been through. (and also Tarling: 194 centimetres, ed.).
All ratios were between 58 (Kung, Pogacar) and 60 (Bissegger, Evenepoel), while Van Aert had 56…
In the end, relationships are an end in themselves. We had to push. I don't think that had any impact. Van AertIn fact, in some respects, he's even lighter than the average time trial cyclist. I think Wout demonstrated what we already saw last Sunday: that he didn't have the legs. A guy like him, on a course that is an asphalt cyclocross, can't let himself be humiliated like that Van der Poel. Then he can also lose: in the finale, on the last notch, in a sprint... but it's not that he can't answer him.
Did the Tour have an impact on today's time trial for you?
Very, very muchAnd in fact, people like Kung and Pogacar were immediately out of the running. And it had an especially significant impact on those who also competed in the world championship road race. From what I've read and heard, the riders said it was a massacre. And if we talk about Kung, he also involved the relay team… If you're tired and you have to try to win the world championship in the individual time trial, you won't do that race. But those are their choices.
And what did Adriano Malori like about this test?
Which was, Finally, a real time trial. A long one. A time trial to push, just right for a World Championship. How we should see more of them. Even in the Grand Tours.
