Date
20·09·26
Four
In A
Row
Nobody had ever won four straight world time trial titles. Nobody had ever really been close. On 39.2 technical kilometres through Montréal, Remco Evenepoel ended the argument at the first split and spent the rest of the afternoon widening it: fastest at every checkpoint, the only man over 52 km/h, and 57 seconds clear of Filippo Ganna at the line. Paul Seixas, 19, took bronze a week after pushing Del Toro on these same roads. Evenepoel now sits level with Cancellara and Tony Martin on four titles — except neither of them did it in a row, and neither of them looked like this doing it.
Race
Worlds · Time Trial
Winner
Remco Evenepoel
Stage 0303
From the peloton,
this week
Race ReportCover · Iss. 47
Four in a Row: Evenepoel Crushes the Worlds Time Trial in Montréal
Nobody had ever won four straight world time trial titles. Nobody had ever really been close. On 39.2 technical kilometres through Montréal, Remco Evenepoel ended the argument at the first split and spent the rest of the afternoon widening it: fastest at every checkpoint, the only man over 52 km/h, and 57 seconds clear of Filippo Ganna at the line. Paul Seixas, 19, took bronze a week after pushing Del Toro on these same roads. Evenepoel now sits level with Cancellara and Tony Martin on four titles — except neither of them did it in a row, and neither of them looked like this doing it.
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Race Report
19·09·26 · Race Report
Alone for 175 Kilometres: Van der Poel Ends Luxembourg With the Ride of the Year
There is long-range, and then there is what Mathieu van der Poel did to the final stage of the Tour de Luxembourg: attacked on the first unclassified rise with 175 km still to race, found himself alone, and simply stayed there all day — one of the longest successful solo breakaways in the sport's recorded history. Six chasers organised and failed; the peloton never saw him again; and he crossed the line 1:04 clear of Mikkel Honoré. "That was not the plan," he said afterwards, which is the most frightening sentence of the week. Davide Piganzoli quietly sealed the overall. Seven days before the Worlds road race, subtlety is officially dead.
Race Report
16·09·26 · Race Report
Caught and Uncatchable Anyway: Van der Poel Opens the Tour de Luxembourg
Mathieu van der Poel's idea of World Championships preparation is to attack a five-day stage race from 11 kilometres out, get hauled back with four to go, and then win the sprint anyway. Stage 1 of the Tour de Luxembourg looped 157 km around the capital's climbs to a finish at the Fëschmaart, and the Dutchman treated it as a dress rehearsal with the volume all the way up: the long raid with Eike Behrens bridging, the catch, Bagioli's late flyer — and a 500-metre counter that nobody held. Gautherat and Van den Berg completed the podium; Van der Poel took the jersey. Montréal has been warned.
Race Report
16·09·26 · Race Report
Twenty Years Old on the Citadelle: Sparfel Stuns Namur
The Grand Prix de Wallonie always ends the same way — everyone together at the foot of the Citadelle de Namur, and three cobbled kilometres to sort the brave from the strong. This year the strong included Tim Wellens, Romain Grégoire and Paul Lapeira, and the winner was none of them: Aubin Sparfel, 20 years old, surged past Grégoire's sprint in the final metres to take the biggest win of his young career for Decathlon CMA CGM. For Grégoire, second on the wall a week after leading out the wrong man in Pescara, the autumn is being cruel with its margins. For French cycling, the production line just shipped another one.
Étape 04Race Diary15·09·26
Race Diary
Grupetto Visits Montréal: A Day on the Mountain at the Grand Prix
You can watch sixteen laps of Mont Royal on television, or you can stand on it and let the race come to you sixteen times. Last Sunday Grupetto did the second thing: up at dawn, coffee on Avenue du Parc, a spot on the fences of Camillien-Houde, and an afternoon spent walking the new Worlds circuit while Del Toro and Seixas took the race apart somewhere over our heads. This is what a WorldTour classic looks like from the grass — the sound before the helicopter, the grupetto's faces on lap twelve, and the strange privilege of standing on tarmac that will decide a rainbow jersey two weeks later. Camera in hand, notebook in pocket. Come along.
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Étape 05Race Report14·09·26
Race Report
The Dress Rehearsal Has a Star: Del Toro Beats Seixas on the Worlds Circuit
Two weeks before the World Championships race the very same roads, the GP de Montréal told everyone what to fear. Sixteen laps of the new 13.4 km Mont Royal circuit — 4,300 metres of Camillien-Houde, Polytechnique and Pagnuelo — came down to a final-lap duel between two of cycling's youngest heavyweights: Paul Seixas attacked, Isaac del Toro bridged, and the pair put thirty seconds into everyone with a Worlds jersey on their minds. Seixas dug again at four to go; Del Toro sat, waited, and won the 800-metre uphill sprint with something close to ease. McNulty was third at half a minute, and Evenepoel — dropped, then heroic in the chase — fifth. See you back here on the 27th.
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Étape 06Race Report13·09·26
Race Report
Twelve Years, Ended Under the Alhambra: Mas Wins the Vuelta as Johannessen Takes Granada
No processional this year. The Vuelta's finale threw four ascents of the cobbled climb below the Alhambra at a race that refused to coast, and it produced both endings at once: Tobias Halland Johannessen outkicking Alessandro Romele for the stage after Ramses Debruyne split the front group inside 2 km — and Enric Mas, three times a runner-up, crossing the line as the first Spanish winner of the Vuelta since Alberto Contador in 2014. He inherited red the day Pogačar crashed out and defended it on every summit the race could find. By 2:15 over Roglič, after 21 stages and one very long twelve years: campeón.
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Étape 07Race Report13·09·26
Race Report
Norway's First Matteotti: Løland Surprises Them All in Pescara
While one Uno-X rider was winning under the Alhambra, another was making different history in Abruzzo. The 78th Trofeo Matteotti spent its afternoon shredding attack after attack — Cosnefroy's group, Ponomar's solo, Grégoire's late trio — and when everything came back together on Pescara's seafront, it was Sakarias Koller Løland who proved fastest, beating home hope Ludovico Crescioli and Benoît Cosnefroy in the sprint. The second win of the Norwegian's career, both of them on Italian roads, and the first Norwegian name on the Matteotti's 78-edition roll of honour. Somewhere in Oslo, a very good Sunday.
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Étape 08Race Report12·09·26
Race Report
Landismo, One Last Time: Landa Takes the Queen Stage as Mas Seals the Vuelta
The Sierra Nevada queen stage — 5,000 metres of climbing, Hazallanas twice, and the 22% ramps of the Collado del Alguacil — gave this Vuelta the finale its script demanded and one it never saw coming. Mikel Landa, 36 years old, winless all season and bound for Euskaltel next year, dropped his last breakaway companions 7 km from the summit and soloed to the queen stage by 47 seconds. Sepp Kuss raided from long range to vault six places into the top five. And Enric Mas answered every question Roglič and Gall could ask: barring disaster in Granada, Spain has its first Vuelta champion since Contador in 2014.
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Étape 09Race Report12·09·26
Race Report
Twenty, and Out: Izagirre Wins the Memorial Pantani in His Farewell Season
On the roads to Marco Pantani's hometown, the race that carries his name came down to four riders and forty flat kilometres of defiance. Michael Storer, Giulio Pellizzari, Mikkel Honoré and Ion Izagirre went clear over the San Lorenzo in Scanno climb, held a charging peloton at forty seconds, and settled it among themselves on the Cesenatico seafront — where the 37-year-old Izagirre, retiring at the end of this season, opened his sprint at 200 metres and took the 20th and perhaps sweetest win of his career. Pellizzari, three days after winning the Toscana, was second again. Some careers end with a fade. This one is ending with a lap of honour.
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