The versatile 24-year-old runner, who is the current world champion in time trial and was third overall in the last Tour de France, He beat Frenchmen Valentin Madouas, silver, and Christophe Laporte, bronze.
Evenepoel is the first male cyclist in history to win gold in both the road race and the time trial. in the same Olympic Games.
It was not on the Champs Elysees nor with a yellow jersey on his back as is usual in Paris when the city hosts the end of the Tour, But Evenepoel lived up to expectations.
Evenepoel, who was among the favourites before the start along with his compatriot Wout Van Aert and Dutch world champion Mathieu van der Poel (37th and 12th respectively), dealt the final blow to the race in the final part of the route, through the streets of Paris, setting a hellish pace on the cobbled climb of Montmartre, against which Madouas could do little.
The Belgian even had to change bikes in front of the Louvre Museum.just over 3 kilometers from the finish line, due to a mechanical problem, but still reached the finish line alone with more than a minute over the second place finisher.
As soon as he crossed the finish line he stretched out his arms, got off his bike, and placed it in front of him. and posed majestically in front of the cameras as one of the kings of world cycling, with permission from Giro and Tour champion Tadej Pogacar, who did not attend the Games.
The race, with 13 minor climbs and a total of 2,800 meters of elevation gain, It began with an early breakaway that had an advantage of 11 minutes but never seemed to come to fruition, formed by the Ugandan Charles Kagimu, the Moroccan Achraf Ed Doghmy, the Mauritian Christopher Rougier-Lagane, the Thai Thanakhan Chaiyasombat and the Rwandan Eric Manizabayo.
Irishman Ben Healy and Kazakh Alexey Lutsenko tried their luck by catching up with the breakaway riders, but neither Evenepoel nor the Belgian armada were willing to allow the surprise, and in the end the photo for the history books under the Eiffel Tower went to the Flemish rider.
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