Tom Dumoulin (Netherlands) claimed an emphatic victory in the elite men's time trial at the UCI Road World Championships in Bergen, mastering the demanding, technical course and the treacherous conditions to beat Primoz Roglic (Slovenia) into second place, while Chris Froome (Great Britain) took third.
The clock may be the ultimate arbiter in the race of truth, but the results sheet told only part of the story. Dumoulin finished some 57 seconds ahead of Roglic, but he also came close to catching Froome – who had set out 90 seconds ahead of him – in the closing metres of the race atop the climb of Mount Fløyen.
Froome was among the strongest performers on the stiff, 3.4-kilometre haul to the finish, and used the climb to move from provisional seventh to the third step of the podium, but he still conceded some 30 seconds to the rampant Dumoulin. Food for thought if and when the Dutchman lines up to challenge him at next year's Tour de France.
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Nelson Oliveira (Portugal) spent much of the afternoon in the hot seat after successfully switching his bike for the final haul to the line, but he had to settle for fourth place, 1:28 behind Dumoulin, while the Sky pairing of Gianni Moscon (Italy) and Vasil Kiryienka (Belarus) placed fifth and sixth, respectively.
Dumoulin was the pre-race favourite and the quickest rider at all bar the first check point on the 31-kilometre course, where only Rohan Dennis (Australia) was able to remain within 10 seconds him on the opening third. Dennis' challenge effectively ended when he crashed on the increasingly slippery roads in the second half of the course, however, and he had to settle for 8th place, 1:37 down.
A rider enjoying a day of grace typically professes that he could scarcely feel his pedals or his chain, but Dumoulin, an analytical kind of bike rider, reached for a more modern metaphor. "I thought my power meter was off because it was so high. I felt really, really good," Dumoulin said.
How it unfolded
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