{"id":161174,"date":"2025-09-22T10:09:17","date_gmt":"2025-09-22T10:09:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/161174\/"},"modified":"2025-09-22T10:09:17","modified_gmt":"2025-09-22T10:09:17","slug":"hang-it-in-the-louvre-remco-evenepoels-humiliation-of-tadej-pogacar-sends-cycling-world-crazy-but-world-tt-champion-admits-it-doesn","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/161174\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cHang it in the Louvre\u201d: Remco Evenepoel\u2019s \u201chumiliation\u201d of Tadej Poga\u010dar sends cycling world crazy \u2013 but world TT champion admits \u201cit doesn\u2019t matter\u201d who he caught; Does \u201ciconic blow\u201d mean Poga\u010dar is \u201cnot that good\u201d for road race? + more on the live blog"},"content":{"rendered":"

It was the catch heard around the world.<\/p>\n

Alex Dowsett, commentating for the BBC, branded it an annihilation. Journalist Thijs Zonneveld opted for iconic, and said it was a \u201chumiliation\u201d. Cycling\u2019s corner of the internet, meanwhile, erupted in disbelief.<\/p>\n

Five years and two days after inflicting his own devastating time trial defeat on Primo\u017e Rogli\u010d, on the torturous slopes of La Planche des Belles Filles, Tadej Poga\u010dar finally got a taste of his own medicine.<\/p>\n

The four-time Tour de France winner, celebrating his 27th birthday, entered yesterday\u2019s world time trial championships in Kigali as one of the big favourites, after skipping the Vuelta a Espa\u00f1a to target a double rainbow jersey triumph in Rwanda.<\/p>\n

\"Remco<\/p>\n

Zac Williams\/SWpix.com<\/p>\n

But on the brutal, jarring cobbles of the C\u00f4te de Kimihurura, it happened. Poga\u010dar, off the pace from the opening kilometres, looked across and saw Remco Evenepoel \u2013 the undisputed master against the clock \u2013 roar past him, the Belgian having bridged the two-and-a-half minute gap between the pair at the start.<\/p>\n

The Slovenian attempted to hold the Belgian\u2019s infernal pace on the 11 per cent gradients, but was ultimately forced to relent.<\/p>\n

Evenepoel stormed on to his third consecutive world time trial title, while Poga\u010dar was forced to settle for fourth, a second down on bronze medallist, and Remco\u2019s Belgian teammate, Ilan Van Wilder, as Jay Vine secured a very impressive silver.<\/p>\n

And let\u2019s just say the images of Poga\u010dar \u2013 the greatest rider of his or any generation \u2013 beaten, caught, annihilated set the online cycling world ablaze.<\/p>\n

\"Remco<\/p>\n

Zac Williams\/SWpix.com<\/p>\n

\u201cHang it the Louvre,\u201d said John Maguire.<\/p>\n

\u201cA beautiful sight,\u201d added another BlueSky user.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is cathartic,\u201d said Goldblue, while Tim summed it up simply with: \u201cBloody hell, Remco.\u201d<\/p>\n

And then Ned Boulting came along to add some perspective: \u201cIt is, after all, the greatest possible compliment to Poga\u010dar that this moment, made possible by the brilliance of Evenepoel made us catch our breath.\u201d<\/p>\n

True.<\/p>\n

And while our collective jaw dropped at the sight of Remco easing past the greatest cyclist of the modern era as if it were a local club 10 on a Tuesday night, for the Belgian himself, that particular moment doesn\u2019t matter all that much.<\/p>\n

\"Remco<\/p>\n

Zac Williams\/SWpix.com<\/p>\n

\u201cOn a day like today it doesn\u2019t matter who it is,\u201d he said at the finish. \u201cI just wanted to push as hard as possible from the first climb on and try and recover on the descents.<\/p>\n

\u201cOf course, on the cobbles when I saw I was coming close quite quickly I knew I had to push through, but I have to say I knew it was really tough on the false flat part at the end, so I didn\u2019t want to go over the limit because I knew that last 400m were hard.<\/p>\n

\u201cThen the first climb of the day was quite hard, together with the last two ones, so I pushed it there. After that first climb I could see I had quite a big gap so I just wanted to keep it at a pace that I could hold to the bottom of [penultimate climb] C\u00f4te de P\u00e9age and then I just went flat out on every climb.\u201d<\/p>\n

And while some fans are dreaming of a Remco rainbow double next Sunday, Evenepoel is only thinking about making it four time trial world titles in a row next year, which would bring him level with Tony Martin and Fabian Cancellara at the top of the all-time list, after tying Michael Rogers\u2019 record of three yesterday.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a big honour for me to step up there with Tony and Michael,\u201d he said. \u201cNext year I guess I have to go for another one because I want to be the first one to get four in a row.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Tadej<\/p>\n

Alex Whitehead\/SWpix.com<\/p>\n

For Poga\u010dar, however, defeat \u2013 and the manner in which it was inflicted \u2013 was \u201chard to swallow\u201d, he admits.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor sure, it was a hard one to swallow, but he\u2019s Remco, and he is so good in this discipline,\u201d the Slovenian said.<\/p>\n

\u201cOf course, I am disappointed that Remco caught me, but it is incredible how good he is in this discipline. Chapeau for all the ride by him.\u201d<\/p>\n

But, in classic Pog fashion, he\u2019s already looking forward to next Sunday\u2019s rematch in the road race.<\/p>\n

\u201cI hope that he prepared 100 per cent for this discipline today and that he will be 99 per cent ready for next Sunday,” Poga\u010dar said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis year, I don\u2019t want to spoil myself to win today, so let\u2019s try to win on Sunday.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It was the catch heard around the world. Alex Dowsett, commentating for the BBC, branded it an annihilation.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":161175,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[445],"tags":[49,48,635,82],"class_list":["post-161174","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-cycling","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161174","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=161174"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161174\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/161175"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=161174"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=161174"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=161174"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}