Montréal, Canada, 21 September, (Brussels Morning Newspaper) – Remco Evenepoel has strengthened his place in cycling history after winning a record fourth consecutive elite men’s individual time trial title at the UCI Road World Championships in Montréal. The Belgian completed Sunday’s 39.2km course in 44 minutes 53.13 seconds, finishing nearly a minute ahead of his closest rival.
Evenepoel wins Montréal time trial by 57 seconds
Evenepoel controlled the race throughout the course, recording the fastest time at every intermediate checkpoint before finishing with an average speed of approximately 52.4km/h.
Italy’s Filippo Ganna, the 2020 and 2021 world champion, finished second, 57.31 seconds behind. France’s 19-year-old Paul Seixas secured bronze, 1 minute 13.04 seconds behind the Belgian.
The victory makes Evenepoel the first man to win four consecutive elite world time trial championships. He also joins Fabian Cancellara and Tony Martin on four career men’s world titles in the discipline.
Evenepoel celebrates historic fourth victory
Speaking immediately after the race, the 26-year-old said successfully defending his rainbow jersey had been a major objective in Montréal.
“It’s amazing. It was obviously the goal to come and win here for the fourth time in a row.”
Evenepoel added that achieving the record had provided “a big motivation” and thanked the Belgian team and equipment specialists involved in his preparation.
His second post-race assessment reflected his confidence after maintaining a high pace despite initially wondering whether he had started too quickly.
“I must say that I’ve just had a wonderful feeling all day.”
He described the result as “a pretty good start of the Worlds”.
Fourth title extends remarkable winning sequence
Evenepoel’s run began with victory in Scotland in 2023. He successfully defended the world title in Zürich in 2024 and Kigali in 2025 before extending the sequence in Montréal.
His latest performance was particularly notable because of the margin over Ganna. Their previous World Championship encounters had been substantially closer, with gaps of 12 seconds in 2023 and six seconds in 2024. Analysis published on Monday also indicated that Evenepoel gained significantly on the Italian through Montréal’s technical sections.
The result adds another major title to a career that includes Olympic gold medals in both the individual time trial and road race from Paris 2024.
Belgian focus shifts to World Championship road race
The World Championships continue in Montréal until 27 September, with Evenepoel’s attention now turning towards the elite men’s road race on Sunday.
He said he would use the early part of the week to recover before turning his full attention to that race from Tuesday.
For Belgian cycling, the opening weekend has already delivered a historic result. Remco Evenepoel now has four successive rainbow jerseys against the clock, while the remaining World Championship programme gives Belgium further opportunities for medals in Montréal.
