{"id":1779203,"date":"2026-02-17T04:45:18","date_gmt":"2026-02-17T01:45:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1779203"},"modified":"2026-02-17T04:45:18","modified_gmt":"2026-02-17T01:45:18","slug":"remco-evenepoel-powers-to-fastest-tt-win-ever-on-monster-68t-chainring","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1779203","title":{"rendered":"Remco Evenepoel Powers to Fastest TT Win Ever on Monster 68t Chainring"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Andrew Hood<\/span><\/div>\n

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Updated February 17, 2026 02:39PM<\/div>\n
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Remco Evenepoel reminded everyone Tuesday he\u2019s the best in the world against the clock in another time trial masterclass to double up with the stage win and the race lead at the UAE Tour.<\/p>\n

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The Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe barreled to his seventh win in 2026 in a short but reaffirming victory in Tuesday\u2019s 12.2km individual time trial to surge into the overall leader\u2019s jersey.<\/p>\n

Racing with a massive, 68t single chainring, Evenepoel went off early as the fifth starter in a bid to avoid increasing wind. He settled into the hot seat for nearly two hours until overnight leader Isaac del Toro (UAE Emirates-XRG) was last off the ramp.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was pretty quick. The course completely flat, not super technical, so it was the perfect course to try and ride that fast,\u201d Evenepoel said. \u201cSo I\u2019m very happy to have done it today.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWe knew that that it was gonna be a bit better to start early,\u201d he said. \u201c[Del Toro] won yesterday, I won today, so I think we both have already one stage win in our pockets, so I think nobody has any regrets. I think from now on it\u2019s gonna be the GC battle that will be open.\u201d<\/p>\n

Evenepoel set the benchmark in 13:03 at 56.1 km\/h, the fastest average speed of his career.<\/p>\n

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Remco means business \ud83d\udc4a\ud83c\udffb<\/p>\n

Time Trial World Champion Remco Evenepoel was off the ramp early and has set the fastest time so far on Stage 2 of the UAE Tour, stopping the clock at 13:03 over 12.2 km \ud83d\udca8 pic.twitter.com\/BKqeK4eAIV<\/p>\n

\u2014 Cycling on TNT Sports (@cyclingontnt) February 17, 2026<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n

He fended off challenges from Joshua Tarling (Ineos Grenadiers) by six seconds, with R\u00e9mi Cavagna (Groupama-FDJ United) at 12 seconds slower to win his 24th career individual time trial victory.<\/p>\n

With the win, the Belgian aero bullet has won four time trials in a row as he continues to master the discipline.<\/p>\n

Take away 12th in last year\u2019s climbing time trial at the Tour de France and the final TT in Nice in 2024, and Evenepoel has won every time trial he\u2019s started since the 2024 Crit\u00e9rium du Dauphin\u00e9.<\/p>\n

Del Toro bled 42 seconds to drop to 10th overall, now 32 seconds back.<\/p>\n

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The GC battle hits overdrive Wednesday with the 183km third stage ending atop the brutal Jebel Mobrah climb. At 13.2km at 8.1 percent, plus the heat and wind, the stage will be the toughest climbing test so far in Evenepoel\u2019s otherwise fairytale season debut.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is more comfortable to defend it than to have to attack. So I think this is a perfect situation for us, and now we have to try to defend it until Sunday,\u201d Evenepoel said.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

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Andrew Hood<\/span><\/div>\n

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Updated February 17, 2026 02:39PM<\/div>\n
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[analyse_source url=”https:\/\/velo.outsideonline.com\/road\/road-racing\/evenepoel-powers-into-uae-lead-on-monster-68t-chainring\/”]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/velo.outsideonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/GettyImages-2261613507.jpg”] Andrew Hood Updated February 17, 2026 02:39PM Remco Evenepoel reminded everyone Tuesday he\u2019s the best in the world against the clock in another time trial masterclass to double up with the stage win and the race lead at the UAE Tour. The Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe barreled to his seventh win in 2026 in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[226,71],"class_list":["post-1779203","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-crawlmanager","tag-velo-outsideonline-com"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1779203","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1779203"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1779203\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1779203"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1779203"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1779203"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}