Remco walks alone. Ever since he was a teenager, as if it were still the World Cup he won as a teenager, just after he hung up his football boots and jersey for the Belgium U18 football team. Montonera, crash, return to the peloton, escape and win. A sequence that is often repeated. As in San Sebastián 2019: he falls back, comes back, hands out water cans to his teammates, leaves and wins. The order of the troupe amazes him, this amoeba that takes different forms, sometimes capricious, sometimes ordered by a dominant group. Sunday ended exhausted, whiplash after whiplash on the Glasgow city circuit as after each start braking was applied at the next corner to avoid swallowing the fence, very close, very closed. His youthful spirit was exhausted.
He prefers to drive alone and even asks his car of choice not to give him the embers. Please don’t worry, he’s going to his shop. And so he does it again like a junior and if five days ago he left the memory of the rainbow for his sleeves of the jerseys of the route, at the Castle of Sterling he regained the pleasure of putting on the white jersey with the five colored stripes on the chest, now on the chrono. Once again Evenepoel, the Belgian phenomenon, a wonder of nature, 1.71 meters tall and 61 kilos, competed against giants like Filippo Ganna, 1.93 meters and 82 kilos, or Joshua Tarling, another rising figure, 194 meters tall and only 19 years old. Because of their physical condition, we selected two talented cyclists for the time trial.
But there is Remco Evenepoel appearing among the last Belgian hopefuls, several places behind Van Aert, his compatriot, and long after the folklore of hopeless cyclists ends, that of Swaziland, Cape Verde or Ghana, who don’t even use time trial Goats rather than racing bikes, and they wear touring helmets instead of the others’ futuristic designs, so the final differences are scandalous. More than half an hour from Evenepoel to the last, Ghanaian Henry Djangmah on a 47.8 kilometer route.
Remco is bang on trend, with the Specialized helmet with wide brims to avoid twirling with the shoulders, panties fitted to the chin, the radio on the chest instead of the back, and short sleeves, just the way he likes it. And he comes out like a bull. The first pedal strokes are a declaration of intent, as Ganna and Tarling are already circulating ahead, the surprise that sets the clocks burning at the intermediate points. At the first check, Ganna sets the pace, with Evenepoel four seconds behind. From there, the up-and-coming Briton slacks off a bit, and when the Italian overtakes Tadej Pogacar, the almighty Slovenian runner, bronze on the Glasgow route, in one of those unusual cycling scenes that will go down in history, it’s already very much clear that while the third step will be for the flying Welshman, Evenepoel and Ganna will be fighting for gold. The others don’t count. They are corpses on bicycles snorting as they arrive at the castle gates, some in very bad spirits as the TV camera invades their privacy.
And in the final battle, that endless kilometer of the rugged cobblestones of Broad Street, Remco Evenepoel holds his own. The youngest time trialist still had 12.28 seconds to win a World Cup. He’s done it again and we need to keep talking about Evenepoel and probably Josh Tarling who was also on the podium at just 19 years old. At least this time, little is said about the Spaniards. Xabier Mikel Azparren finished 40th out of 78 cyclists. There was nothing left.
She hung the Evenepoel medal, listened to the Brabanzona, the Belgian anthem, and in the background the words of Marlen Reusser could still be heard, the Swiss runner who stopped midway through Thursday’s women’s time trial and who like who by Marlen Reusser Ricky Rubio, Simone Biles and other mentally exhausted athletes sounded: “I’m not a machine. She wasn’t ready to run and didn’t feel like running. The moment I stepped onto the floor, I thought it was probably a bad idea, but I wanted to do it,” noting, “Since the tour, I’ve felt like I need time to breathe and my desire to get out there and to win, rediscover.” . I need this moment of relaxation.” The favorite for the world title openly admits: “I have the feeling of being caught in an endless downward spiral.”
You can follow EL PAÍS Deportes on Facebook and Twitteror sign up here to receive our weekly newsletter.