Time Trial World Championships: Remco Evenepoel beats Filippo Ganna to claim his fourth consecutive title
The World Championships in Montreal kicked off with a silver medal and two top-10 finishes for the Italian national team. Filippo Ganna took second place in the men’s time trial behind Remco Evenepoel, who was crowned world champion for the fourth consecutive time. In the women’s race, Elisa Longo Borghini narrowly missed the podium, finishing fourth less than five seconds behind the bronze medalist, while Vittoria Guazzini cracked the top ten with a tenth-place finish.
Ganna’s race got off to a tough start. At the first checkpoint, he was in tenth place, more than twenty seconds behind Evenepoel, who was already on his way to victory. His comeback took shape in the middle section: at the second intermediate checkpoint, the Italian rider moved up to fourth place, and by the 29.8 km mark, he was already in second. From that point on, he consolidated his position, gaining ground on all his rivals except for the Belgian star. At the finish line, he clocked a time of 45’50″44, 57″31 behind Evenepoel, and 15″73 ahead of France’s Paul Seixas, who finished third. Mattia Cattaneo rounded out the Italian team’s performance with a 16th-place finish in 47’07″52, 2’14″39 behind the winner.
Filippo Ganna finished the day behind Remco Evenepoel, who claimed his fourth consecutive world title in the discipline in Montreal. The Piedmont native, despite having legitimate hopes of winning gold, is nonetheless satisfied with his performance: “It was perhaps my best time trial; I have nothing to reproach myself for. That’s the nature of the sport—kudos to Remco, who once again proved himself to be a great talent.”
The rivalry between Ganna and Evenepoel has now become a duel that plays out with almost ritualistic regularity. The Belgian had already beaten the rider from Verbania at the 2025 European Championships, held in France’s Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region, where he won by a margin of 43 seconds. And at the 2024 World Championships in Zurich, the script was similar: Evenepoel took gold, Ganna silver by just 7 seconds, with Edoardo Affini rounding out a historic all-Italian podium. This rivalry resurfaced on the road during this year’s Tour de France, with the Belgian winning the time trial on Stage 16 ahead of Pogacar, while Ganna finished 11th on a course that didn’t suit his strengths.
The result in Montreal comes at the end of a highly successful season for Ganna, who in June won the Italian time trial title for the seventh time in his career—his fifth consecutive title — on the route from Vicoforte to Barolo, becoming the all-time record holder in the discipline and surpassing Marco Pinotti. This is a testament to his extraordinary consistency, confirming that the Verbania native remains the benchmark in Italian time trials even at a time when the top step of the world podium continues to elude him due to the presence of an opponent who is simply in a league of his own.
The story was different for Elisa Longo Borghini, who narrowly missed the podium in Montreal by a handful of seconds. The Italian champion arrived at this event with great confidence, buoyed by a season of the highest caliber: last August, she had claimed third place at the Tour de France Femmes, stepping onto the podium of the Grande Boucle for the first time in her career behind Demi Vollering and Kasia Niewiadoma. It was a historic result that deeply moved the athlete herself: “I’m speechless—I never thought I’d make it onto the podium,” she said, nearly in tears, at the finish line in Nice.
Vittoria Guazzini, on the other hand, can look back with satisfaction on her tenth-place finish, which represents a significant step forward for the Tuscan rider from Fiamme Oro. The time trial specialist, who was already part of the Italian national team at the Track World Championships, has confirmed her ability to play a leading role in road events as well, firmly establishing herself among the world’s top ten in the time trial.
