The wind blowing up to 50 km/h will complement a series of curves that will make maintaining position on the bike difficult, and finally, there will be an irregularly sloped climb. The time trial of the Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana will be truly atypical, but Remco Evenepoel will remain the man to beat. From a technical standpoint, the Belgian has chosen a 64-tooth chainring and today wants to demonstrate his clear superiority in time trials.

The two-time Olympic champion will start today at 4:26 PM, with only six riders starting after him, while Biniam Girmay will start last at 4:38 PM. "This morning they're predicting rain, so I'm happy to start late thanks to the advantage I've accumulated. I'm also happy that the team has raced so well. We've done really good work."

A week ago, Evenepoel won the team time trial in Mallorca with the colors of his new team, Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe, and on that day, he and the team faced a true test. "We didn't field our strongest team in Mallorca. Comparing the average weight of Movistar with ours, we were seven kilos lighter. They had already lined up their best time trialists, while we weren't with the complete squad, Lorenzo Finn was racing to replace Vlasov who had fallen ill".

Evenepoel is certain of having the strongest team and to prove it, he only needs to mention the riders who didn't race in Mallorca but will certainly be at the Tour de France. "If we had also started heavy riders like Roglic, Tratnik, and the Van Dijke brothers, we could have gone faster. But it wasn't necessary". The Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe recorded an average of 59.7 km/h in the team time trial that day: the speed reached today will not have the same numbers as Mallorca, and riders will maintain lower averages.

In the first part of the course, the wind will be favorable, but the route will present many curves. The second part has several longer straight sections, but strong wind gusts are expected. "They predict wind speeds up to 50 km/h. It will be dangerous. The first part is technical due to numerous curves. Midway, there's an irregular climb: continuously changing gradients and thus accelerations. That climb will require extreme effort because there will be plenty of time to recover during the descent".

Regardless of wind and technical aspects, world champion Evenepoel is the absolute favorite. In a traditional time trial, excluding mountain time trials, he has been unbeatable since April 1, 2024.

For the Belgian, his twenty-fourth professional individual time trial victory is approaching, and at the moment, there seem to be no opponents capable of stopping him. "I want to take my first step towards the general classification with this time trial and then try to win one of the two stages in the final weekend".

The team change has brought him a significant step forward in terms of materials, and now he feels much more confident about obtaining important improvements in his entire preparation. "For every race, every cyclist is offered a gear ratio that, according to our engineers Dan Bigham and Jonny Wale, is ideal for completing the race while obtaining the maximum result".

In today's time trial, Evenepoel will use a bike with a 64-tooth front chainring, while Florian Vermeersch was undecided between a 60 and a 62, but ultimately chose the 62.

"Bigham and Wale are a bit obsessed with the idea of mounting a large chainring at the front. I can use a 10-tooth and even a 36-tooth sprocket at the rear during the time trial. I understand why the engineers propose this long gear ratio, but I don't think I'll always be a fan. Personally, I think I'll push myself to the limit in this time trial. During the reconnaissance, I noticed there's a steep uphill section. However, during a time trial, you go full gas and the speed is higher compared to training, so it should all work out. Usually, our technicians are good at making estimates, but I believe the rider must also be able to follow their own instinct".