Harrie Lavreysen is well on his way to succeeding in his unique mission to conquer four world titles during the Track Cycling World Championships in Chile. The 28-year-old rider from Luyksgestel came to three titles on Friday night by winning the kilometer time trial on the Santiago track.
Lavreysen won gold in a time of 57.978 seconds. It is already his nineteenth world title in total. Jeffrey Hoogland was a fraction slower and took the silver. The British Joseph Truman captured bronze.
Mission
This is Lavreysen’s second time trial title. In Santiago he won the world title in the keirin sprint event for the fourth time and the world title in the team sprint for the seventh time (together with Roy van den Berg and Hoogland). Never before has a track cyclist managed to win four events at the World Championships.
Lavreysen can complete that mission on Sunday if he manages to win gold in the individual sprint for the seventh time in a row.
‘I fell completely silent’
Lavreysen said afterwards that the time trial title certainly did not come to him. “The first laps went well, but in the last one I came to a complete standstill. I am happy that I was able to get him over the finish line, because Jeffrey drove very fast,” he said at NOS. “A time trial like that is really tough, but I underestimated it a little bit. This has cost me a lot. The tournament can’t really go wrong anymore. The form is fantastic and I’m looking forward to the sprint.”