Emotional victory for Rohan Dennis as he repeats as world time trial champion
Evenepoel takes silver a year after winning Junior chrono title
Rohan Dennis retained his crown as the best time trialist in the world on Wednesday as he clipped 19-year-old Remco Evenepoel at Yorkshire 2019 with a crushing ride. After coming second to Egan Bernal in the Tour de Suisse, Dennis looked poised to have a fantastic Tour de France, but after his mysterious Tour de France exit, his season went off the rails until Wednesday.
The Course
The organizers had laid out a very arduous 54-km route that started in Northhallerton and finished with the Harrowgate circuit that the time trials have been rolling since Sunday. It would take about 75 minutes to complete. Two time checks were placed at the 17 km and 38 km marks. It rained but not to extent that it did on Tuesday.
We've got @maciejbodnar lining up for the race against the clock today. Our Polish time trial champion leaves the start house at 15:27:30 CET ????
? Northallerton ➡️ Harrogate
? First rider start 14:18 CET
? Last rider start 15:42 CET
?️ 54.1km pic.twitter.com/3KQnNPY6Tq— BORA – hansgrohe (@BORAhansgrohe) September 25, 2019
Irishman Eddy Dunbar passed Ramūnas Navardauskas of Lithuania and became the first to complete the course in 1:09:52.
There was a lot of expectation for Belgian phenom Remco Evenepoel, who was sock defiant.
#Yorkshire2019 – Remco Evenepoel vs sock length rule: he had to pull down socks before start, he pulled them back immediately after start. pic.twitter.com/EQCwIWqhG8
— La Flamme Rouge (@laflammerouge16) September 25, 2019
The fastest time kept falling, with Brit John Archibald of Continental team Ribble sitting on the hot seat for a while. Champion Dennis, having foregone his Bahrain-Merida-issued Time Warp bike for a BMC Timemachine, was bombing the course, but new Vuelta a España champion Primož Roglič was lagging.
Evenepoel was second fastest to Dennis at both checkpoint one and two by over a minute.
Young superstar @EvenepoelRemco absolutely smashes through the second checkpoint, over 34 seconds faster than the previous fastest time. He's looking great out there.#Yorkshire2019 pic.twitter.com/5UGzPvbpjg
— ? Yorkshire 2019 (@Yorkshire2019) September 25, 2019
Evenepoel’s compatriots Yves Lampaert and Victor Campernaerts both crashed.
Remco took over from Italy/Ineos’s Filippo Ganna on the hot seat with 1:06:14. But Dennis wouldn’t be denied, catching his three-minute man Roglič and celebrating on the line. The Australian was 1:09 faster than Evenepoel. Ganna earned the silver.
Going back to 2014, Dennis hasn’t placed lower than 8th in the elite men’s individual chrono.
Sole Canadian Hugo Houle was 27th, +4:58.
Thursday is the first road race of Yorkshire 2019, the Junior men’s.
2019 UCI Road World Championships Elite Men’s Time Trial
Gold) Rohan Dennis (Australia) 1:05:05
Silver) Remco Evenepoel (Belgium) +1:09
Bronze) Filippo Ganna (Italy) +1:55
27) Hugo Houle (Canada) +4:58
