Evenepoel catches, passes Pogačar for 2½ mins in Kigala Worlds TT | Video

Remco Evenepoel catches and passes Tadej Pogačar for 2½ minutes in the men's TT at the UCI World Road Championships in Kigala, Rwanda

Remco Evenepoel (Belgium) has dominated the men's TT at the World Road Championships in Rwanda, catching Tadej Pogačar (Slovenia) for 2½ minutes on a miserable day for the Tour de France champion.

Evenepoel was claiming his third straight victory in the Worlds TT, the 65th win of his career, and adds his world title to the Olympic road race and TT titles he already holds.

Though Pogačar still finished 5th, some 2:37 down on Evenepoel, that performance, especially being caught and passed, is a new feeling for him, for all the wrong reasons.

Darren Rafferty and Ryan Mullen represented Ireland in the event, which was hilly and also involved some very rough cobbled sections in Kigala, and both finished just outside the top 20 on the day.

Rafferty, who usually rides of EF Education-EasyPost, was 23rd at 5.57. Mullen, currently plying his trade with Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe, was 26th at 7:07.

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Though Mullen has a very strong record in the TT - silver in the Worlds as an U23 as well as 3rd in the elite Europeans and 5th in the elite Worlds - he no longer has such a big focus on the discipline as his role as a top lead-out man has taken over.

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Evenepoel went around the course - 40.6km with 760m of climbing - in a time of 49:46, in an average speed of 48.948kmph. He was 1:15 - and almost 1.2kmph - faster than Jay Vine; the Australian putting in one of the performances of his career to take silver.

Ilan Van Wilder (Belgium), who will be elevated to the status of top rider when Evenepoel moves on from Soudal-QuickStep - claimed bronze at 2:36.

That performance comes just at the right time and offers further evidence he has the abilities to step up for his trade team when Evenepoel moves on to Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe.

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