Portugal Colonial - Evenepoel wins record 4th straight world time-trial title

The 26-year-old Belgian came into the race as the overwhelming favourite and he did not disappoint.

He was already more than half a minute ahead of the rest by the second intermediate time-check just over halfway through the race.

And by the finish, the Belgian had put almost a minute into second-placed Filippo Ganna with Paul Seixas taking third another 15 seconds back.

Evenepeol thus became the first man to win the time-trial world title four times in a row, while also equalling the record number of overall titles held by German Tony Martin and Swiss Fabian Cancellara.

Already the Olympic champion in both this discipline and the road race, Evenepoel has not lost a time-trial since the 2025 Tour de France.

And he has enjoyed his best season to date, winning the Amstel Gold Race, Clasica San Sebastian and Grand Prix de Quebec, as well as finishing second behind Tadej Pogacar at the Tour de France.

Ganna had started slowly and was only 10th at the first time-check, but by the third, he had moved up into second spot.

But he could not make any headway into Evenepoel, who did not stop increasing his lead from the start to the finish.

Young Swede Jakob Soderqvist, the under-23 champion in this discipline last year, was second to Evenepoel at the first two time-checks but faded over the last 10km and finished fifth.

Teenage French starlet Seixas, gauged his effort better and put in a strong ride over the final 10km to finish third.

P.Serra--PC