Dominant performance by two Kazakhs in the time trial events at the 2026 Asian Games which kicked off today in Japan. Winning the men's race, covering the 32.4 kilometers on the program at an average speed of nearly 47 km/h, was Alexei Lutsenko who, inflicting a 1'34" gap on Japan's Lotto-Groupe Wanty Shunsuke Imamura and Mongolia's Burgos Burpellet BH Jambaljamts Sainbayar, claimed the title and returned to victory after almost two and a half years, with his last success dating back to the 2024 Giro d'Abruzzo.

In the women's competition, contrary to what happened among the men, the race was more closely contested with UAE Development Team rider Rinata Sultanova who, covering the 24.4 kilometers at over 40 km/h average speed, prevailed by just 4 seconds over China's XDS China Women Team Hao Zhang and 32" over South Korea's Jieun Shin: the Kazakh rider in this way brought her seasonal victories to four following her wins in the road race and time trial at the national championships and in the time trial at the Asian continental championships in February.

MEN'S RESULTS

1. Alexey Lutsenko (Kazakhstan) 41'24"

2. Shunsuke Imamura (Japan) +1'34"

3. Jambaljamts Sainbayar (Mongolia) +1'34"

4. Ming Xue (China) +1'57"

5. Sergio Tu (Taiwan) +2'14"

WOMEN'S RESULTS

1. Rinata Sultanova (Kazakhstan) 36'23"

2. Hao Zhang (China) +4"

3. Jieun Shin (South Korea) +32"

4. Wing Yee Leung (Hong Kong) +1'37"

5. Yanina Kuskova (Uzbekistan) +1'50"

Photo credit: Vladislav Semenov