UEC Road European Championships 2019 – Mens ITT
A nice Dutch detour around the city of Alkmaar in which the participating riders will battle against the clock!
The Route:
A panflat 22.4km ITT with only few corners and little to no technical sections. This means that riders who can hammer down huge watts on the long straigths have a large edge over other riders. Therefore, we expect this race to be won by a power-house pure time trialist.
Weather-Watch:
There will be no rain, but there will be a moderate breeze from the west, which will mean a headwind for our ITT riders for about half of the race. This will have a lot of impact on the final results. Another advantage for the heavier, stronger ITT’ers.
The Favorites:
Jos van Emden
If he could design his favorite time trial track, it would look like this one. Jos will love the long flats and the lack of any gradient which will allow him to maximally utilize his immense power and his huge engine. Also has no Tour fatigue unlike some others. Starts as one of the favorites in his home country!
Remco Evenepoel
Is the clear favorite for the bookmakers, but we don’t see him winning. He displayed a very impressive performance by winning the Clasica San Sebastian last week, but creating a gap and maintaining it on hilly terrain with over 200 km’s of racing in the legs is not comparable to a 22km ITT. He has shown good ITT performances, but mostly on hillier more technical parcours that suit him better. His relatively low weight will also be a disadvantage given the parcour and the headwinds.
Kasper Asgreen
Is having a hugely impressive year so far and did well in basically all ITTs in which he participated. He will likely challenge for the podium and has a chance to go for victory. Does have Tour de France fatigue.
Filippo Ganna
The Italian national champ. Loves these types of parcours and is expected to do very well tomorrow. Is an expert in hammering down huge watts. Will he challenge for the win? Maybe.
Yves Lampaert
Won a comparable ITT in the Tour de Suisse (stage 8), and will love the parcours. Yves Lampaert on a good day can challenge for the win here.
Stefan Küng
Deserves a mention here given his past. But given his current form and this season’s results we don’t expect him to be among the strongest ITT’ers tomorrow.
The Winner:
He got the freedom to prepare himself exclusively for this race, he loves this type of parcours and will be motivated to take a home-win. Jos van Emden for the European ITT win!
