No rider had ever strung four world time trial titles together before Sunday. Remco Evenepoel now has, and the Belgian did it on a Montréal course that suited his Italian rival on paper.

The 39.2-kilometre route around the Canadian city was almost pancake-flat, with just 220 metres of climbing. It should have been Ganna country. Evenepoel led at every intermediate check and finished at an average of 52.4 km/h, his 44:53.13 putting him almost a minute clear of the field.

“From start to finish, I was really feeling in control of the race,” Evenepoel told Cycling Pro Net, as reported by Velora Cycling.

“It’s pretty special.”

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The Belgian added that he had not been carrying the weight of the record around with him at the start ramp.

“I was not really thinking about the fourth time in a row before the race.”

His previous wins came in Glasgow, Zurich and Kigali. Fabian Cancellara and Tony Martin also collected four elite men’s time trial world titles each, as noted by Domestique Cycling, but neither did it in consecutive years.

Ganna claws back to silver

Ganna started slowly, appeared out of sorts through the technical opening kilometres, and clawed his way back to silver on the longer straights along the waterfront.

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“Today do my maximum effort I can do. Maybe something more than what I can do,” the Italian said, in comments carried by Velora Cycling.

“I don’t know where we lost the time.”

“I think we are getting closer every time to knocking on the door.”

Ganna’s gap of 57.31 seconds was, on numbers alone, the closest anyone had been to Evenepoel in a Worlds time trial since the streak began.

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Seixas takes bronze at 19

The bronze went to Paul Seixas of France, who at 19 finished 1:13.04 down on Evenepoel and only 15 seconds behind Ganna. Sweden’s Jakob Söderqvist had been on medal pace when he slid off on a left-hand corner around the 29.8-kilometre mark, remounted and finished fifth.

Seixas said the crash had taken some of the shine off the podium.

“I still have this slight bitterness that I finished third because a guy fell,” he told reporters, per Velora Cycling.

On the man in the rainbow jersey, Seixas was unequivocal.

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“Remco is really above everyone. He is a great champion and he is a four-time world champion.”

“Fully okay, apart from a bit of lost skin and a bit of lost ego maybe,” Söderqvist said of his crash.

Double still to chase

The elite men’s road race is on Sunday, 27 September, over 273.7 kilometres with 3,803 metres of climbing on repeated laps around Mount Royal, according to ColombiaOne’s summary of the championships schedule. No rider has ever won the elite men’s time trial and road race at the same World Championships.

Seixas, who will line up in blue that day rather than the tricolour of a national champion, was already looking past his bronze.

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“Now we will have to race well and race intelligently. There are some very strong riders against me.”