Tom Dumoulin goes in search of his first world championship time-trial title in Qatar today, a result that would overturn cycling’s established order.
The 2014 bronze medallist has excelled in time-trials this year, storming to stage wins in both the Tour de France and the Giro d’Italia.
He then came agonisingly close to gold in Rio, edged into second in the time-trial by Swiss specialist Fabian Cancellara, who has since retired.
In Rio, Dumoulin, 25, also beat time trial rival Chris Froome, another who will be absent from the race in Qatar.
The tall, lean rider with the upright cycling style posted on Twitter “That was a hot ride” after the team event earlier this week.
And his ambitions go further than this one off race.
“I want to win a Grand Tour in 2017, I don’t know which one, possibly the one with the most time trials in it,” he told Cycling News last week.
If he is to win the world title though he will have to beat Germany’s Tony Martin, a three-time world champion in this discipline.
The 31-year-old won the time trial at the recent Tour of Britain pushing Dumoulin into third place, and has already claimed gold in Qatar as part of the Etixx-Quick Step team which triumphed in Sunday’s team time-trial event.
And he has been in very special training for the Doha heat, with which he claims to have no great problem.
“It’s all about percentages, I’ve been training on rollers in a heated room,” he explained.
Last year’s champion at Richmond, United States was the Belorussian Vasil Kiryienka of Sky, a surprise winner who has shown poor form of late, even so, the English bookmakers odds show he is their tip to win.
Other potential winners include Jonathan Castroviejo, who won the European time-trial event last month in Plumelec, France.
And another challenge could come from the man who finished second in the Tour of Britain’s time trial is Rohan Dennis.
The 26-year-old Australian is becoming a major force at time-trial events and last month won the Eneco Tour event.
That though was over a distance of just 9.6 kilometres and today’s world title event will be raced over 40 kilometres.
It begins in Lusail, which is being built from scratch, and is where the 2022 football World Cup final will be played.
Then, just as in the woman’s event, the race finishes on the Pearl-Qatar, an artificial island in Doha.
UCI organisers could reduce the distance if temperatures get past 38 degrees Celsius, 100 degrees Fahrenheit.