Individual Time Trial – World Championships 2022 [FULL RACE]

September 18, 2022

World Championships 2022 – Individual Time Trial ITT – Wollongong – Wollongong : 34,2 km

Jerseys are an integral part of cycling, both as a sport and as a culture. Not only do they indicate a rider’s team affinity or national colours, they also denote achievement and accomplishment too. Wearing the rainbow bands of World Champion is perhaps the highest honour and achievement one can attain in the sport. This year’s UCI Road World Championships will head Down Under for the first time since 2010 when they took place on Australia’s southern coast in Geelong. Wollongong, a city just south of Sydney on the country’s southeastern coast, will serve as hosts this year. While it may sit on the coast, the terrain that surrounds the city is far from flat and will no doubt make for some tough and attritional races.

Norway’s Tobias Foss took a stunning victory in the elite men’s time trial at the UCI Road World Championships on Sunday in Wollongong, Australia.

The 25-year-old bested Stefan Küng (Switzerland), Remco Evenepoel (Belgium), and quite a few other TT talents on a 34.2km course to claim his first title in the event.

Filippo Ganna (Italy), winner of the past two world titles, was way off the pace and finished seventh at nearly a minute in arrears.

Foss, Norway’s two-time reigning champion in the discipline, set a time of 40:02 on the course to take over the hot seat from Stefan Bissegger (Switzerland), but with some recognizable stars still yet to finish.

None of those stars, however, could match him. The likes of Küng, Tadej Pogačar (Slovenia), Evenepoel, and defending champion Ganna all came up short in the end.

Küng, who seemed to be in the driver’s seat after a fast start, faded slightly in the second half of his effort and settled for runner-up honours at just three seconds back, with Evenepoel rounding out the podium nine seconds slower than Foss.

When all was said and done, Foss was still in the hot seat, having secured Norway’s first men’s world TT title.

“It feels like a dream. I don’t believe it, its’ so unreal,” Foss said.

“If I was top-10 I would have been really satisfied. I was hoping for a top-5. I really got everything out today. I couldn’t have done anything better. I knew my shape was good but this is more than I could ever dream of.”

How it unfolded
Daniel Bonello of Malta was the first rider off the ramp on a warm and breezy afternoon in Wollongong. Just under 50 riders started the race, heading off at intervals of 1:30. The field was split into three groups, with two short breaks after the first and second selections of riders.

Among the first few starters on the day was Australian national champion Luke Plapp, and he duly delivered for the home fans on the two-lap, up-and-down course, taking a provisional lead in the early goings. The home rider enjoyed some time in the hot seat before there was a flurry of changes at the top of the leaderboard, with Bruno Armirail of France, then Yves Lampaert of Belgium, and then Stefan Bissegger of Switzerland setting faster and faster marks in quick succession.

Bissegger’s mark of 40:49 held for some time thereafter, but some big names were due to start in the third and final group. Magnus Sheffield seemed primed to be among those to challenge for the win with strong split showings, but the American hit the deck rounding a corner and would ultimately finish a disappointing 17th.

Whether or not Foss would have been considered among the marquee riders by most observers at the start of the day, he quickly proved to be up to the task with strong showings of his own at the intermediates. That said, others managed to set faster times at the first split, hardly a surprise considering how far down the list of favourites Foss would have found himself on Sunday morning.

Ethan Hayter (Great Britain) was among those besting Foss at the first intermediate, but Hayter too would suffer misfortune, dropping his chain and needing a bike change. The 24-year-old would finish fourth in the end.

Still, Küng seemed to be well-positioned to best Foss after he too set a faster mark at the first split. Foss, though, stayed calm through the next few kilometres and delivered a spectacular showing in the final third of his ride, appearing to only gain steam as his effort progressed.

As he finished, he took over the hot seat from Bissegger, having gone 47 seconds faster. Then he began his wait.

At this point, it started to become clear that Ganna, despite his stellar credentials as a two-time world champ, would not be making it three in a row in Wollongong. The Italian TT specialist was off the mark even by the first intermediate and was not making up ground after that.

Küng, though, did appear to be in the mix – until he arrived on the finishing straight with the clock ticking inexorably up and over Foss’s mark. Küng had lost a sizable chunk of time to the Norwegian in the closing kilometres, and suddenly, it seemed possible that Foss really might stun the favourites.

Pogačar, even with his immense talents, would only be fast enough for sixth on the day, and then all eyes turned to Evenepoel, who seemed to be cruising around the course and in strong contention for the hot seat. The newly crowned Vuelta champ, the second-to-last rider on the road, delivered a strong ride on the winding course –but he was nonetheless nine seconds too slow to topple Foss, settling for third.

As Ganna rolled over the finish line in seventh, Foss’s shocking victory was secure.

“I will try and enjoy it,” he said, “but first I have to realise it.”

Results :