![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/25KigaliLeonard.jpg\")
<\/a>Leonard in the starting arena.<\/p>\nThe Course<\/p>\n
Nine kilometres longer than the women\u2019s race, the men\u2019s route held all three of the climbs in the first time trial\u2013C\u00f4te de Nyanza from both sides, cobbled C\u00f4te de Kimihurura\u2013but it also included 1.9-km, 6.6 percent C\u00f4te de Peage.<\/p>\n
The Contenders<\/p>\n Without two-time champion Filippo Ganna in Rwanda, it looked to be a contest between double winner Evenepoel and Poga\u010dar. Stefan Kung and Australian duo Luke Plapp and recent Vuelta a Espana mountains winner Jay Vine were also in the mix.<\/p>\n The Canadians were Leonard and Laurent Gervais. Leonard was tenth in this April\u2019s Itzulia Basque Country time trial.<\/p>\n To a drumming fanfare, the first to roll down the ramp was Rwandan Shemu Nsengiyumva.<\/p>\n An early benchmark was Belgian Florian Vermeersch\u2019s 54:49. Leonard cracked Vermeersch\u2019s best time at Checkpoints 2 and 3, but another Belgian, Ilan Van Wilder, in turn eclipsed the Canadian\u2019s times. After clipping Vermeersch\u2019s top time, Leonard didn\u2019t have time to settle into the hot seat before Van Wilder bumped him off. Plappy popped Leonard down to third. <\/p>\n Evenepoel immediately followed Poga\u010dar. The Slovenian was a second behind Isaac del Toro at Checkpoint 1. But Evenepoel was better than the Mexican by 44 seconds. <\/p>\n With Remco thumping his way to a third consecutive rainbow jersey, the question for Canadian Cycling Magazine was how high Leonard would be in the final reckoning. <\/p>\n<\/a>A tough chrono course. Image by La FlammeRouge<\/p>\n<\/a>Canada\u2019s Laurent Gervais takes on the tough elite men\u2019s time trial on the first day of the Kigali, Rwanda World Road Championships.<\/p>\n