European Road Cycling Championships, Edoardo Affini gold and Mattia Cattaneo bronze in the time trial

Italy scored a double in the elite men’s time trial at the European Road Cycling Championships in Belgium. The winner and the European title, the first for an Italian in the continental time trial, was Edoardo Affini from Mantua, who set the best time of 35’15”. On the podium with him were Stefan Kuengsecond at 10?, and the other blue Mattia Cattaneothird at 20?. The race was on a 31 km course between Zolder and Hasselt. The big names in the specialty were not competing, from Remco Evenepoel to Filippo Ganna, from Wout Van Aert to Primoz Roglic. On the same course, the best time of the day was however achieved in his race by the Belgian Under 23 Alec Segaert, 21 years old, a possible phenomenon of the future: 9” of “advantage” over Affini.

For Affini, a professional with Visma-Lease a Bike, this is the fourth career win and the sixth podium in a continental event, where in the past he had won the title in Nyon 2014 in the junior road race and in Glasgow 2018 in the under-23 time trial. Affini, who takes over the roll of honor of the continental time trial from Briton Josh Tarling, is the first Italian to achieve the feat; in the past, Moreno Moser (2019) and Affini himself (2019) had won bronze in the time trial, while Filippo Ganna had won silver (2021) and bronze (2022).