At the second time of asking, Italian Lorenzo Milesi claimed the U23 time trial world title at the UCI Road World Championships, riding a negative split on the 36.2km course in Stirling to overhaul rainbow jersey favourite Alec Segaert of Belgium and take the win.
The 21-year-old turned pro with Team dsm-firmenich this season having come up through the Dutch squad's development ranks but hasn't yet stood out as a top time trial prospect. However, he rode the best TT of his short career on Wednesday afternoon, saving some energy for the hilly final part of the course.
At the line at Stirling Castle overlooking the town, Milesi hung on to beat Segaert into second by 11 seconds and take Italy's first time trial rainbow jersey at this level since Adriano Malori's triumph in 2008.
Speaking at the post-race press conference, he paid tribute to his trade team, who have worked comprehensively with him on time trialling during his rookie season.
"I think it's a lot. It's almost everything," he said when asked about dsm-firmenich's influence on his ride to victory. "We worked together all the time. We did a good fitting at the beg of the season for the TT. We work every time really good on the TT. We do two days a week on the TT bike, and it has worked a lot.
"We had a nice plan with the team, and I just tried to follow it," he said of the time trial. "When there was a short downhill, I tried to recover a bit for the last part. That was really hard. I pushed really hard in the last kilometre, and it worked, so I'm happy."
It all went to plan, then, with outsider for the rainbow jersey storming to the win just as compatriot Filippo Ganna has done twice in the elite time trial in recent years.
Milesi finished 10th last time out on the flatter, more technical parcours in Wollongong. There he finished 1:05 off the winner, Søren Wærenskjold, and 48 seconds down on silver medallist Segaert. He couldn't give a precise reason for his improvement in the past year, though did note that he didn't think his WorldTour experience – having competed at time trials in the Critérium du Dauphiné [placing 29th] and Tour de Pologne [25th] – would have made so much difference.
"It was a completely different parcours. For sure, last year I wasn't on the same level. It's hard to answer," he said. "In a time trial you're alone so it doesn't matter if you're against WorldTour riders or just U23 riders. I think it's just about the legs and the shape in that moment.
"In Poland, the time trial was on stage 6, so the feeling was a bit worse. It was also the first week after being at altitude, so I was up and down all of the week. I think that's what changed."
Milesi, who is under contract with Team dsm-firmenich through the end of the 2025 season, will now look ahead to competing in the U23 road race on Saturday, then turn his attention to a Grand Tour debut at the Vuelta a España, which kicks off in Barcelona on August 26.
Standout results so far in his debut pro season for the 2022 Tour de l'Avenir stage winner have included 13th at the Tour of Norway and a top 10 at the Italian Nationals time trial.
He wouldn't give too much away about any goals at the Vuelta, though his team is likely to take a youthful squad to the final Grand Tour of the season, meaning there could be freedom to ride an aggressive race.
"Of course, it was a goal, but we worked hard for the Vuelta, so this was in between as a goal and luckily the shape was really good," he said of the time trial. "Then I have Vuelta and then we will see after that how the shape will be – if it's good or not.
"We start with the TTT so we'll see already on the first day how the shape is. One goal of the season is down and now we'll think about the rest of the season."
