The World Championship Week Continues
A few comments leading into the apotheoses on Sunday with the Men’s race.
King Ganna
It was no surprise that Filippo Ganna won the world championship time trial. It was close. Wout only lost by a handful of seconds. My prediction for number 1 and 2 was not difficult. Remco Evenepoel winning bronze was a happy surprise, and surely boosts his morale.
Remco Has a Serious Image Problem
Remco Evenepoel is seen as the lone wolf, the rule-breaker and the anti-team player.
Sven Vanthourenhout, the coach of team Belgium:
If I doubted even 0.01% about Evenepoel, I would not have selected him.
It’s odd that you have to make such as statement.
Also Eddy Merckx commented critically:
If there is only one leader, you really shouldn’t take Evenepoel. He rides mainly for himself; we saw that at the Olympics.
Remco responded arrogantly and hinted that Eddy Merckx held a grudge against him for not joining Axel Merckx bicycle team.
Given the stink around him, his answer should have been smart, succinct and humble: “Sorry to hear that. I will show my worth to the team and in support for Wout.” And then put his legs where his mouth is and support the team.
Remco’s PR team has its work cut out for him.
There is only one way to make this right: as long as Wout is in the race, Remco must follow the team orders and support Wout. That’s it. No opportunistic break away. Even if he were to win the rainbow jersey with a selfish breakaway, it would be a Pyrrhic victory.
Only the Best Wout Can Win This
As we saw in the U23 men’s race, a lot can happen in the race where it may not be hard enough to break the peloton. Quite a few others can snag the victory from team Belgium and Wout Van Aert.
I predict it will be one of the shadow favorites who will snag the gold. They include Mathieu Van Der Poel and Tom Pidcock. Both riders have been quietly preparing for this race. Both have a strong finish.
Still, Go Wout!
Helmet Off to Otto-Jan and Elodie
In De Tijd van ons Leven two amateur time trialist trained to not finish last. It was a great and fun show to watch. 
The results: Otto-Jan put beat out Christopher Simons of Ghana. Otto-Jan held an average of 41.58km/hr. Elodie came with an average of 34.64km/hr very close (41 seconds) to Pakistani Jan Asma.
Helmet off to both.