Tom Dumoulin won the gold medal in the individual time trial at the Road World Championships on Wednesday.
Despite the rain that hurt the chances of the late starters, Dumoulin clocked 44 minutes 41seconds on the 31-km course in Bergen, cheered on by massive flag-waving crowds.
He beat second-placed Primoz Roglic of Slovenia by 57.79 seconds, while Chris Froome finished third, 1:21.25 slower.
Dumoulin came close to overtaking Tour de France champion Froome after starting 1:30 behind him.
Defending champion Tony Martin lost too much ground in two passages of a brutal 3.4-km climb at an average gradient of 9.1 percent to add to his four titles.
“I can’t believe it, wow, it’s really amazing. I had such a good day I felt really really good,” said Dumoulin.
“Then it started raining and I had to take the corners really slow especially in the climb.”
Dumoulin, whose previous best result was third in 2014, also won the team time trial with Sunweb last Sunday.
2017 World Championships – Men’s Time Trial results:
| 1 | Tom Dumoulin (Netherlands) | 44:41 |
| 2 | Primoz Roglic (Slovenia) | +58” |
| 3 | Chris Froome (Great Britain) | +01’21” |
| 4 | Nelson Oliveira (Portugal) | +01’28” |
| 5 | Vasil Kiryienka (Belarus) | ,, |
| 6 | Gianni Moscon (Italy) | +01’29” |
| 7 | Wilco Kelderman (Netherlands) | +01’34” |
| 8 | Rohan Dennis (Australia) | +01’37” |
| 9 | Tony Martin (Germany) | +01’39” |
| 10 | Jan Tratnik (Slovenia) | +01’43” |
| 11 | Bob Jungels (Luxembourg) | +01’49” |
| 12 | Nicolas Roche (Ireland) | +01’53” |
| 13 | Alexis Gougeard (France) | ,, |
| 14 | Jonathan Castroviejo (Spain) | +02’01” |
| 15 | Ilnur Zakarin (Russia) | +02’04” |
| 16 | Victor Campenaerts (Belgium) | +02’08” |
| 17 | Edvald Boasson Hagen (Norway) | +02’11” |
| 18 | Andrey Grivko (Ukraine) | +02’15” |
| 19 | Nikias Arndt (Germany) | +02’16” |
| 20 | Ignatas Konovalovas (Lithuania) | +02’21” |
