Sept 20 (Reuters) - Belgian Remco Evenepoel secured a record fourth consecutive men’s individual time trial title at the UCI Road World Championships in Montreal on Sunday while Switzerland's Marlen Reusser defended her title on her 35th birthday.
Evenepoel covered the 39.2 km circuit in a blistering time of 44 minutes, 53.13 seconds. Italy's Filippo Ganna finished 57.31 seconds behind Evenepoel while 19-year-old Frenchman Paul Seixas, who placed fourth in his Tour de France debut this year, finished 1 minute,
13.04 seconds adrift for bronze.
With the win, Evenepoel became the first man to win four consecutive world elite time trials. He also joined German Tony Martin and Swiss Fabian Cancellara as the only four-times winners.
"It's amazing. It was obviously the goal to come and win here for the fourth time in a row," said Evenepoel. "It was a big motivation and I just have to thank the whole team around me again for the preparation."
Swede Jakob Soderqvist was leading at all timing points but went down on a turn a few kilometres from the finish and despite getting back up quickly missed out on the podium, finishing in fifth place.
Birthday girl Reusser retained her rainbow jersey in the women's elite individual time trial with a winning time of 50 minutes, 24.44 seconds. Britain's Zoe Backstedt claimed silver, finishing 40.11 seconds behind Reusser, while Germany's Franziska Koch took bronze, 45.54 seconds adrift.
The course wound through Montreal along the St. Lawrence River, over the Samuel De Champlain Bridge and through Circuit Gilles Villeneuve before tackling an uphill finish in Old Montreal.
Reusser, nicknamed 'The Flying Elephant', captured the rainbow jersey in Kigali 2025 and said the demanding nature of the course this year had left her nervous.
"On the one hand, I was looking forward to it because it has so many challenges and technical aspects. But from the side of pacing, how fast you should go, to cope with the challenges, I was really nervous," Reusser said.
"We don't have time trials like this really.
"We had loads of discussions with the performance coach about the pacing strategy."
Tour de France champion Demi Vollering of the Netherlands was unable to match the specialists, finishing eighth, 1:49.94 behind Reusser.
"I think I cannot be negative yet," Vollering said. "I felt it was a good time trial, a good rhythm, and I was actually happy.
"Then I heard Marlen was coming from the back, and I was like: 'Wow, Marlen is flying today like all the other time trials'.
"I lost a little bit of focus at this moment, but tried to come back to it. I had thought I was doing well. But it was really a course for the specialists."
(Reporting by Pearl Josephine Nazare in Goa and Frank Pingue in Toronto; Editing by Christian Radnedge)
