The second day of competition of the UCI Road and Para-cycling Road World Championships saw Belgium’s Remco Evenepoel win the Men Elite individual time trial (ITT) shortly after Australia’s Grace Brown claimed gold in the Women Elite event. Germany’s Antonia Niedermaier was also crowned on Sunday, in the Women Under 23 ITT.
Just two months after her triumph at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, Grace Brown became the first rider to win the ITT at the Olympic Games and the UCI Worlds in the same year. And the Belgian star emulated her immediately on the roads of Zurich!
Covering the 29.9km in 39’16’’, Brown was joined on the podium by the Netherlands’ Demi Vollering (+16’’) - claiming her second UCI World Championships medal after silver last year in the road race - and the USA’s Chloé Dygert (+56’’), who took bronze after winning the event in 2019 and 2023.
“It honestly feels like I’m in a dream these last couple of months,” Brown celebrated after a thrilling scenario saw her power to her third ITT gold medal this year (she began 2024 with the Nationals, before the Olympic Games and the UCI Worlds), her final season as a professional. The 32-year-old Aussie had the strongest start but Vollering was leading by almost 10 seconds at the second checkpoint (km 20.5). Still, Brown flew towards victory at the Sechseläutenplatz, in Zürich.
“I think definitely the experience of the Olympics and having that success on my shoulders already gave me a lot of confidence and as I was riding in the last couple of kilometres I just kept telling myself I can be a UCI World Champion and that gave me the strength to push all the way until the end,” Brown added before confirming she will retire in a few weeks: “I just feel really lucky to have had the end of my career like this, it’s special.”
Niedermaier had a much more dominant performance to retain the Under 23 rainbow jersey ahead of Switzerland’s Jasmin Liechti (+2’11’’) and Belgium’s Julie de Wilde (+2’16’’). The young German star achieved the fourth fastest time on the day, 9’’ off Dygert’s bronze medal!
Racing on a golden bike, like Brown, Evenepoel impressed from the start of the 46.1km Men Elite ITT, leading the way from the first intermediate (km 12.5), all the way to the finish.
🇧🇪🥇 Remco Evenepoel 🥇🇧🇪
— UCI (@UCI_cycling) September 22, 2024
Men Elite Individual Time Trial UCI World Champion 🌈#Zurich2024 pic.twitter.com/UE77EgeMMy
Already silver medallist behind the Belgian at last year’s UCI Worlds and this summer at the Olympic Games, Italy’s Filippo Ganna took 2nd place again (+6’’) and claimed his fifth medal in the Men Elite ITT of the UCI Road World Championships. His countryman Edoardo Affini completed the podium (+54’’).
“It’s crazy”, Evenepoel said before adding, “maybe the most difficult time trial of my life”.
“My chain dropped one minute before the start,” the Belgian winner explained. “Then I took the start and I had no power metre at all. So it was a pure time trial on the feeling and I was struggling in the last 2-3 kilometres. I think I pushed quite hard on the second little kick and I went quite all out on the downhill as well. Without the power metre, of course it was pretty difficult to keep the pace in the last 5 kilometres but things like that happen and in the end we won, that’s the most important.”