Coming from Remco Evenepoel, it sounded less like a boast and more like a statement of fact. "I'm a specialist in finding form at the best moment," the Belgian told reporters in Wetzikon on Friday evening, two days before he defends his time trial title at the UCI Road World Championships in Zurich.
These days, Evenepoel rarely gets it wrong when he targets a major goal. His relative travails at June's Critérium du Dauphiné were swiftly forgotten after a sparkling summer that yielded a podium finish in his debut Tour de France and two gold medals at the 2024 Paris Olympics.
And so, when Evenepoel gives his form his vote of confidence – "I think I have found the right legs at the right time" – one is inclined to take him at his word. A comparatively subdued showing at the Tour of Britain was, he indicated, something of a palate cleanser as he returned to action following a post-Olympics hiatus.
"A lot happened after the Olympic Games, lots of parties, requests and ceremonies, in Brussels and Schepdael too. It wasn't easy," Evenepoel said. "Then when I got back home to Spain, I tried to get back on the bike as quickly as possible, but I got a bit ill, so it was harder to get back into good shape. But I took my time, and I stayed calm, which was the right approach to be in good shape now.
"There's still gas in the tank. I lined up at the Tour of Britain without pressure and without wanting to do results, so I was very calm in my mind. Then I put the focus on the two World Championships races and Il Lombardia."
It's been well documented that no rider has ever won time trial gold at the Olympic Games and World Championships in the same year. It's been rather less trumpeted that no male rider has even attempted the feat. (Of the female champions, Annemiek van Vleuten went closest in 2021, with gold in Tokyo and bronze at the Worlds). Since the discipline was added to the Olympic programme in 1996, however, every male champion from Miguel Induráin to Primož Roglič has opted against rolling down the start ramp at the Worlds at all.
Evenepoel, it seems, never even contemplated the idea of skipping the Worlds time trial. Indeed, his initial plan for 2024 was to make a tilt at a hat-trick of time trial gold medals. "I was hoping to win the three titles, but I had to skip the European Championship due to illness," he said.
Road race
In Zurich, Evenepoel will line out as the obvious favourite, with Stefan Küng and Roglic the most likely challengers. Evenepoel, however, warned against ruling out Filippo Ganna and Josh Tarling, who had staked so much on the Olympics time trial only to be soundly beaten by the Belgian in the rain of Paris.
"Ganna and Tarling had really focused on the Olympics. I beat them there without any specific preparation and that will have been a disappointment for them, I think," Evenepoel said. "But they will be on target here. They are championship riders, so I'm not writing them off just like that."
Evenepoel, of course, is something of a championship rider himself. He has finished on the podium in each of his four previous Worlds time trial appearances, culminating with gold in Glasgow a year ago. The sheer length of that course is replicated with the 46km test in Switzerland, while the undulating middle section seems ideally tailored to Evenepoel.
"I agree. From the start you go straight ahead for a long time until the climb," he said. "It's not really a five or six-minute effort uphill, instead it goes up in steps. Then you come down and you have another 12km flat and straight ahead.
"It's almost like three time trials in one in terms of its configuration, and that should suit me. But I've won on all types of courses. Every time trial suits me, more or less."
And every race, too, it seems. Tadej Pogačar will be the favourite for the road race a week on Sunday, but Evenepoel and defending champion Mathieu van der Poel are perhaps the men most likely to deny him the Triple Crown on a tough course that carries echoes of the much-missed Züri-Metzgete.
"My motivation remains the same. I'm someone who lives for this kind of championship and for distinctive jerseys," Evenepoel said. "I'm going to give it my all, 100%, in both races. The motivation is very high, and neither race is more important than the other."
Evenepoel was speaking in a conference room at the Hotel Swiss Star, flitting amiably between Flemish, French and English to a press pack composed predominantly of reporters who had made their way from his home country on Friday morning to document the Belgian star's every utterance and every move.
Murmurs of a potential move from Soudal-QuickStep to Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe have been background noise throughout much of Evenepoel's season, though he was reluctant to entertain the speculation on arrival in Switzerland.
"It's annoying, especially when there is virtually nothing to it," Evenepoel told VRT in a separate interview on Friday. "It's annoying because I always try to focus on what has to be done. There are always extra impulses from outside anyway that you don't really want, especially in the preparation for what's still to come, the World Cup and the Italian Classics.
"But in the end, I'm someone who can shrug that off quickly, although it doesn't always come easily. It's something that has been there for a few years. Of course, it could be toned down from time to time, but fortunately, I have a hard head and I can just keep focusing on what needs to be done."
