Remco Evenepoel races 62-tooth chainring and eliminates seven riders in Volta ao Algarve time trial

World champion's field-destroying time on huge gears sees riders finish outside time limit in 22km TT

14:52, Sunday 18th February 2024

Daniel Benson

Editor in Chief

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Remco Evenepoel on his way to time trial victory at the Volta ao Algarve

Remco Evenepoel’s (Soudal Quick-Step) performance on the stage 4 time trial in the Volta ao Algarve was impressive by any means with the world champion cruising to the win and beating names like Filippo Ganna, Magnus Sheffield and Wout van Aert in the process but the winning time also eliminated seven riders who finished outside of the time cut, and were therefore unable to start the final stage.

The Belgian’s time of 27:09 was of great concern to the some of the small teams in the race. Sitting outside of the WorldTour, the Volta ao Algarve can invite teams from the second and third division of the cycling world, and a chunk of the start list is made up of Continental riders.

In Saturday’s 22km time trial there was a clear disparity between the world's best and the rest. Several of the domestic riders raced on road bikes instead of the state-of-the-art time trial machines that the WorldTour ranks are accustomed to.

Seven riders finished over seven minutes down on the winner’s exceptional time with Gonçalo Carvalho the final rider to sneak through at 6:45 down on Evenepoel.

Another startling aspect to Evenepoel’s ride was the mammoth 62-tooth chainring he raced on over the undulating but power-based course.

“We adjusted the position a bit this winter and the mechanics and performance team looked at my gearing,” he told Het Laatste Nieuws at the finish.

When asked about his specific gearing for the time trial and the 62-tooth chainring, the Belgian laughed before admitting that the tech had been used by other riders in the past.

“God damn it, that's already leaked or what? We made that choice because of the course - it was a lot of false flat downhill. I thought it was a limit myself. Our good friend Victor Campenaerts started this, we 'stole' it from him. It went very well. I can only be satisfied with the work of the entire team.”