'I'm ready just in time' - Evenepoel bullish ahead of Worlds showdown

Remco Evenepoel believes he is in his best form of the season as he lines up to defend his title in the individual time trial at the World Championships in Kigali on Sunday. The Belgian has endured a difficult 2025 season, the start of which was delayed until April by a heavy training crash last winter. 

Although Evenepoel began his campaign with a win at Brabantse Pijl, he struggled at the Tour de France and abandoned the race on the Col du Tourmalet while lying third overall. He returned to action at the recent Tour of Britain, where he warmed up for the Worlds with a stage win.

“I haven’t been in the form I’m in now so this year,” Evenepoel told reporters in Kigali on Friday evening, according to Het Nieuwsblad.

Evenepoel arrived in Rwanda on Thursday, and he performed his first reconnaissance of the time trial course on Friday. The 40km course features some 680m of climbing, making it a different test to those faced in his title-winning rides in Glasgow in 2023 and in Zurich a year ago.

“I don't know it very well yet, but it was important to review the technical part again today,” Evenepoel told Sporza.

“We’ll go over everything again tomorrow, but it doesn’t look like the most technical course. It’s quite tough on the cobbled climb at the end, although it’s not the most difficult climb. It’s steep at the beginning, but then it levels off a bit.”

Evenepoel’s remarkably compact time trialling position has often provided a clear advantage against the watch, and he insisted that would remain the case in Rwanda despite the rolling parcours.

“Yes, definitely,” he said. “It's a very fast course, and you’re riding at high altitude. The air is thinner, so the speed is higher. And there are no 10% climbs, so you can hold your position, and that gives me an advantage. And downhill it’s also more or less straight ahead.”

Even so, the rugged terrain played a part in persuading Tadej Pogacar to line up in the time trial as well as the road race, and he looks set to be Evenepoel’s chief rival on Sunday. Evenepoel beat Pogacar in time trials at both the Critérium du Dauphiné and the Tour this year, but the Slovenian looked in ominous form at last Sunday’s Grand Prix Cycliste de Montréal.

“This course won’t lie. The strongest wins here. And it doesn’t matter which Pogacar I meet – I will always have to show the best version of myself,” said Evenepoel, who is aiming to become the third male rider to win the Worlds time trial three years in succession after Michael Rogers and Tony Martin.

“I think I can join that list. I feel pretty ready. Everything has gone well and I’m feeling good. Everything is going as it should for the Worlds. I’m ready just in time.”

Belgian journalist Stijn Vercruysse was barred from travelling to Rwanda by the country’s authorities on Thursday, apparently due to reporting that was critical of the regime of president Paul Kagame.

Asked for his feelings on Kagame presented him with a medal on Sunday, Evenepoel said: “That would be a good sign, especially if it’s gold. I'm here to win the race. Anything else that happens, unfortunately, we can’t do much about. But if he gives me the gold and that jersey, I won’t complain.”