No one actually enjoys watching time trials – but that doesn’t mean there won’t be any good story lines. The 2018 UCI U23 Men’s World Championships Individual Time Trial (I’m shortening this painfully-long title to “ITT” for the rest of this article) was a good one: there was a repeat World Champion, a botched start, and an incredible ride from a Belgian who wasn’t even mentioned in the list of favorites.
Double World Champion
Mikkel Bjerg is a time trial specialist. You can tell just by looking at him. He’s tall and lanky, but can still contort his body into a thin, aerodynamic missile on a TT bike. That large frame comes into good use when pushing 400+ Watts is the norm – such is the competitiveness of the U23 field. I’d been following Bjerg for most of the season, especially since he is a part of the Hagens Berman Axeon U23 Program run by Axel Merckx, a team that I competed against (or rode behind, to be honest) in some of the biggest stage races in the US. Bjerg had a strong start to the season, winning the UCI 1.2 Rabobank Dorpenomloop Rucphen in March. He was aiming high at the Tour of California Time Trial in May, but could only manage 6th. Still a respectable ride, but the Dane was left wanting more.
After finishing 3rd in the U23 Giro Time Trial, and 2nd in Denmark’s Elite Time Trial, Bjerg was clearly on-form in the middle of the summer. He came to the World Championships a whole ten days early, doing recon of the TT course until he knew it like the back of his hand – a true mark of a time trial champion. As the reigning ITT champion from 2017, Bjerg was the last rider to roll down the start ramp. At the first time check, I couldn’t believe my eyes; he was 40 seconds faster than the next-best rider, after just 10 km! He never slowed down, and by the time he crossed the finish line, he was a double world champion, demolishing the competition by 33 seconds over just 27.8 km – an insane average speed of 51.3 kph (31.8 mph)!
I see an Elite World Title in his future.
Botched Start
Charlie Tanfield is the 2018 U23 Great Britain Time Trial champion, and one of the most aerodynamic riders I’ve ever seen. In full flight, his forehead nearly touches his aerobars, and you can barely see his face behind his squeezed-together wrists. How he’s able to see the road immediately in front of him at 35 mph… I’m not sure. But with 10 seconds to go before his start, Tanfield was nowhere to be seen. His bike was there on the start ramp, held up by one of the officials, but Charlie was not. Moments later, he clobbered up the ramp’s metal staircase, wobbled across the stage, and hurriedly mounted his bike – there are few things more painful to watch than a grown man trying to “run” in spandex, metal cleats, and an aero helmet.
Tanfield’s bad start didn’t end there. He struggled to clip-in, taking more than 20 seconds and a handful of short, jerky pedal strokes to finally do it. He went on to finish 27th on the day, 1:32 down on Bjerg.
Click here to see the video
Brent the Belgian
No one could have predicted this: Brent Van Moer of Belgium, 2nd in the U23 Worlds ITT. As a stagiaire with Lotto-Soudal, Van Moer is clearly a very strong rider. 6th place in the U23 Paris-Roubaix, and 2nd in the U23 Omloop Het Nieuwsblad, showed that he has tons of potential as a one-day Classics rider – like any true Belgian rider. But how is he in individual time trials? Good, but not great. And to be one of the top U23 riders in the world, you need to be better than great.
Of the few time trials that Van Moer had ridden all year, he only finished in the Top 10 once: a 10th place at the U23 Belgian Championships. Most of the time, he was around 20th–40th in the ITTs. Again, good, but not great. But on the day of the U23 World Championships, Van Moer produced something special. His ride put him in the hot seat for over an hour. He watched rider after rider come through the finish line, nowhere close to his 33:04 finishing time. It was only future bronze medalist Mathias Norsgaard Jorgensen, another long and lanky Dane, who came close to Van Moer’s time, crossing the line just five seconds slower. But Bjerg was on another level that day, and took a well-deserved win.
While it wasn’t the most exciting race to watch, the U23 ITT produced some amazing story lines, and one’s that I really enjoyed taking a deep dive into before the rest of the World Championships play out. Don’t be surprised to see these young men standing on the podium of the Elite Championships in a few years’ time.