Evenepoel, Reusser Open World Road Championships With Time Trial Wins

Remco Evenepoel won his third-straight individual time trial at the 2025 UCI World Road Cycling Championships in Kigali, Rwanda, while Marlen Reusser won the first world title of her career in the women’s event.

Evenepoel made a statement with his race, finishing the rolling 40.6-kilometer circuit in 49 minutes and 46 seconds. He was the only rider to crack the 50-minute mark, beating Australia’s Jay Vine by one minute and 14 seconds. Belgium put two riders on the podium, as Evenepoel’s teammate Ilan van Wilder put in the performance of his life to take bronze in his first time racing an individual time trial on the World Championship stage.

The women’s race was a 31.2-kilometer route that was similarly difficult up-and-down to the men’s edition. A three-time European time trial champion, Reusser claimed her first rainbow jersey by finishing in 43 minutes and nine seconds, winning by 51.89 seconds. Behind her, Dutch teammates Anna van der Breggen and Demi Vollering took silver and bronze.

Evenepoel Catches Pogačar In Closing Kilometers

Heading into Sunday’s race, four-time Tour de France winner Tadej Pogačar was seen as Evenepoel’s main challenger for the world title. Pogačar typically excels at the time trials that come in the middle of Grand Tour fatigue—he earned his first Tour de France title by overtaking Primož Roglič in an individual time trial on the race’s penultimate day. He has not been as successful in one day time trials, but the combination of the hilly route, the competition field, and Evenpoel’s struggles this season made Pogačar a real contender in the race.

Instead, the enduring image from this event will be Evenepoel passing Pogačar on the cobbled climb up the Côte de Kimihurura about a kilometer from the finish. Pogačar started the race two minutes and thirty seconds ahead of the defending champion, but Evenepoel consistently ate into Pogačar’s advantage, flying through the checkpoints well ahead of Pogačar’s pace.

“The first climb was quite hard, together with the last two, but I really pushed it there and after that saw I had quite a big gap, so I just wanted to keep a pace that I could hold onto until I went flat out on the last climb,” said Evenepoel. “It was so hard to really push through [the cobbles] at the end, but to win is the most important.”

The image is the inverse of what spectators saw during the second time trial of this year’s Tour de France, when two-time winner Jonas Vingegaard overtook the struggling Evenepoel in the final meters. Evenepoel finished third at the 2024 Tour de France but his training this season was derailed after crashes in December and April. He won the stage five individual time trial before abandoning on stage 14, revealing later he had been riding with a broken rib.

Evenepoel also made headlines this summer as his current trade team, Soudal-Quickstep, released him from his contract a year early to allow his transfer to Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe for next season.

Pogačar tried to follow Evenepoel’s final push but was unable to keep contact with the Belgian. He finished two minutes and 37 seconds behind Evenepoel in fourth place, a second off the podium.

Pogačar and the rest of the riders will now shift focus to next Sunday’s elite men’s road race. Pogačar is eyeing a second consecutive title and another year in the rainbow jersey. Evenepoel will also take the start, looking to win the road race world title for the first time since 2022. Last summer, Evenepoel became the first male cyclist to win the road race and time trial at a single Olympic Games.

Reusser Overcomes Illness For First World Title

Reusser, 34, began her season strong, winning the women’s Giro d’Italia—one of the three Grand Tours—along the Tour de Suisse and Vuelta a Burgos stage races. The Swiss rider arrived at the 2025 Tour de France Femmes as a pre-race favorite but abandoned during first stage after suffering with a stomach bug.

After she revealed before the race that another illness affected her preparation for the UCI Road World Championships, it seemed like it would be the latest addition to a string of bad luck that has kept one of the best time trialists in the women’s World Tour peloton that has prevented her from winning the world title.

“It’s up and down, but it’s not unique with me,” she said. “Some have even lower downs, and they get stuck in a down and you don’t hear anything from them anymore. So that’s why you’re aware, because I go also over my highs and you see me performing well.”

Reusser reversed the script during the individual time trial, peaking at the right moment to overcome Dutch rivals van der Breggen and Vollering by over 50 seconds.

“Of course this is super special for me,” she said after the race. “I came into the sport as a super talent time trialist, I won so many time trials, I actually beat many of the rider who were world champ in other races, but never in the World Championships or the Olympic Games, so for me this was a knacknuss we say in German – a nut you have to open hard. So I’m happy I opened it today.”

Van der Breggen, who came out of retirement and returned World Tour racing this season, was the first of the three medalists to start. She completed the course in 44 minutes and one second, which made her the clubhouse leader by over two minutes.

When it was Reusser’s turn she was the fastest to the first checkpoint by nine seconds and was 28 seconds ahead of van der Breggen at the second time check. She gave back about five seconds at the penultimate time check but powered through with a sensational close that exploded her advantage.

Vollering was only a second down on Reusser at the first time check but was 29 seconds slower at the second. Reusser had just crossed the finish line and that check on Vollering swung the momentum heavily in her favor. Vollering took bronze one minute and five seconds behind Reusser.

The women’s elite road race will take place Saturday, September 27, the day before the men’s race caps off Africa’s first time hosting the senior UCI World Road Championships.