'It was a tough week' - Evenepoel bounces back from Worlds setback with dramatic European title

The Belgian launched his first attack on the Možjanca with 36km remaining, but he crashed on the first corner of the descent. No matter, Evenepoel remounted quickly and went again with 32km remaining.

On each occasion, Giulio Ciccone was the only rider who could match Evenepoel, though the Italian stopped collaborating on the final lap when he learned that his teammate Christian Scaroni was chasing alone as the third rider on the road.

That led to some tense discussions between the leaders and their respective team cars in the closing kilometres. Ciccone looked to have stolen a march on his rival in the two-up sprint, but Evenepoel closed a three-length gap in the final 100m.

Evenepoel and Ciccone couldn’t be separated at first glance or by the initial television replays, and there was a delay before the jury decreed that the Belgian had won the title.

“Honestly, I felt that I was really coming over him, so I thought that I was going to win it, but you never know,” said Evenepoel, who couldn’t hide his joy when word finally filtered through that he had been given the nod. “I think the images were pretty clear, the big relief that I felt and how proud I am to take the victory today.” 

Evenepoel was heavily favoured for victory in Slovenia, but that had also been the case at last week’s World Championships road race in Montreal, where he surprisingly struggled and had to settle for 12th. He admitted that the disappointing end to his Canadian expedition had affected him more than he had cared to admit publicly.

“It was honestly a really tough week for me after the deception of the Worlds,” Evenepoel said. “I think it was playing more in my head than I’ve been showing, so it's a big relief to be back on a good level today and to complete my set of championship jerseys. It feels amazing.”

Evenepoel’s victory means he has now won both the road and time trial titles at the World Championships, European Championships, Belgian Championships and Olympic Games across his career.

“It’s amazing,” he said. “I have to thank my teammates a lot. The race they did was exactly how we wanted to do it.”

But nothing ever seems to run entirely smoothly for Evenepoel, whose initial attack on the penultimate lap was interrupted by a crash.

“It was a bit of a tricky situation,” he said. “The second last time on the climb, I think I put a nice attack, but I went a bit too fast in the corner and I just slipped away. I think I could have gone there, but in the end, we stayed calm and we came back to the plan.

“Then I put an attack just before the descent, and I was with Cicco in the front, so we worked together pretty well. Then in the sprint, it was looking a bit… Well, I thought I was not going to get it anymore, but then I saw him slowing down quite a lot with 100m to go, and I just came just over him on the finish line. I’m super happy, super proud of this performance.”

Although Evenepoel scored a fourth consecutive world time trial title in Montreal, he confirmed that he would not defend his European crown in the discipline on Wednesday, preferring to focus on his preparations for Il Lombardia next Saturday.

“No, I’m going to focus on Lombardia now and try to celebrate,” Evenepoel said. “I mean, I’m going to celebrate tonight because it's a special one. Like I said, I’ve now won all the championships in pro cycling, so I think this one we can celebrate big time.”