Belgium’s Remco Evenepoel is determined to bag a hat-trick of titles in the men’s time trial when Cycling’s Road World Championships begin in Kigali on Sunday.
The winner of the time trial at the last two championships in Scotland and Zurich, he is looking to emulate the Australian Michael Rogers, who won three time trial titles from 2003 to 2005, and move closer to the record four titles held by Fabio Cancellara of Switzerland and the German Tony Martin.
“That's a nice challenge. I want to add my name to that list and go even further,” Evenepoel told reporters on the eve of a week of racing at a first-ever cycling world championships in Africa.
“It would be great to achieve a historic result here – that would be special."
The 25-year-old had a first training ride of the course on Friday and liked what he saw.
"It's a very fast course, and you're cycling at high altitude. The air is thinner, so the speed is higher."
"And there are no 10% climbs. You can maintain your position, and that gives me an advantage. Downhill, it's also more or less straight," he said.
There is a cobbled climb to the finish line. "It's tough at the end, although it's not the most difficult climb. It's steep at the beginning, but then it levels off a bit."
Tadej Pogacar, the reigning road race world champion and four-time Tour de France winner, has set his sights on a rare time trial-road race double.
"Which version of Tadej Pogacar will I see on Sunday? Hopefully, it's as good as possible, so I have to show the best version of myself to win," added Evenepoel.
"But this course won't lie. The strongest wins here. And it doesn't matter which Pogacar I face, I'll always have to show the best version of myself."
Evenepoel prepared in Spain, but said he did not spend much time on his time trial bike.
"I'm not the rider who does a lot of training on the time trial bike. That's a bit too dangerous with traffic. I did one training session with blocks and that was OK.
"I've had a decent preparation, a long month of training camp, and I now also have five months of competition under my belt,” he added.