World title for Remco Evenepoel who in Zurich took home the gold medal in the individual time trial, beating by 7 seconds Philip Ganna and for 55 Edward Affini. A heart-stopping time trial that places the young Belgian among the greats of cycling and that, after the two golds in Paris, opens the doors to history for him if he were to also win the title in the road race in seven days. Which is not a remote possibility… In short, it might not even end here. “It was the most difficult time trial of my life…” he said at the finish line and that does credit to the beaten, in particular to Filippo Ganna who came close to the feat on a terrain that, it must be said, was not entirely favorable to him. But winning is what counts. And Evenepoel is not one to back down. So in this season that has seen him always a protagonist, from the Tour to the Games, he could now really write a page of sport that will remain. Because his is a cycling like that, aggressive, powerful and domineering, impetuous. He knows no half measures. Remco Evenepoel: victories, defeats, triumphs, a few setbacks… A pure champion, like it or not, that’s what he is. But Remco divides. There is no middle ground and this phenomenon who at only 24 years old has already won a Vuelta, two Liège-Bastogne-Liège, three San Sebastian classics, three world championships between road and time trial and two Olympic golds. There is no middle ground because someone like that is either loved or hated. Because he is often a show-off, often arrogant and doesn’t make the slightest effort to make himself likeable. Born on January 25, 2000 in Schepdaal, a hamlet of the municipality of Dilbeek a few kilometers from Brussels, he is the son of Patrick Evenepoela professional who fought with the 80s and 90s Miguel Indurain And Gianni Bugno. He arrived in the cycling that counts only five years ago. First he did other things, above all he played football, his passion since he was five years old, in the ranks of Anderlecht, of Psv Eindhoven up to the youth national team of Belgium where he is also captain. In short, not a bad guy. But then the love ended. And it ended when Psv sent him to learn the ropes in the first division in Malines. Maybe it was the rather sad factories of this industrial town in the province of Antwerp, maybe it was the air of Flanders, maybe it was that when you are young it is easy to change your mind, the midfielder with great hopes decided out of the blue that football was no longer for him and in 2016 he put the ball in the garage and got on his bike. Four months of apprenticeship and the first victories arrived: at the Bizkaiako Itzulia, one of the most important international races in the junior category, at the Aubel-Thimister-Le Gleize, at the Route des Gèants and at the Philippe Gilbert Junior. In 2018, in 47 days he achieved 36 victories among the juniors, national, European and world champion in both the road race and the time trial, and at 18 years old he signed his first professional contract with Quick-Step. Patrick Lefevere. The following year he won the European Elite Time Trial Championship and took silver at the World Time Trial Championship. The rest is recent history, including that terrible flight that saw him fall from a wall into a cliff at the Giro di Lombardia three years ago. A story that is still short but already intense, a story of a predestined one that already places the Belgian among the greats of cycling today, whatever you may think of him, whatever side you decide to take, regardless of the (long) road he still has to travel. Remco is like that: take it or leave it. He exaggerates when he loses, exaggerates when he wins, he always exaggerates. Never normal, never banal and it must mean something. And if another World Road Championship were to arrive, it would be difficult to find the words….