Time Trial World Champions
The time trialling of another World Championships has drawn to a close, something which was only invented as a discipline worthy of a rainbow jersey as recently as 1994.
During these past 30 years, some World Champions squeezed much more value out of their year in rainbows than others. Some seemed to take part in every race they could find which had a time trial so they could spend as much time in their jersey as possible. While some others had absolute disasters, a sub-curse of the curse of the rainbow jersey, and barely got to race in it at all.
Who have been the most successful Men’s World Time Trial Champions? I am here to give you the answers you didn’t even know you wanted.
For the sheer volume of victories, the best year as World Time Trial champion was Tony Martin’s year after he won it for the second time in 2012. He won an astonishing nine time trials during that stint in the rainbow jersey and capped the year off with another win at the Worlds, his third in a row (which he rode in German kit, so doesn’t count toward his rainbow jersey total). He started 12 time trials in the rainbow jersey throughout that 12 months giving him a win rate of 75%. This also the highest win rate percentage of any given year of any time trial world champion.
Tony Martin (2012 champion) wins
| # | Date | Race |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | October 2012 | Chrono des Nations |
| 2 | February 2013 | Volta ao Algarve - Stage 4 |
| 3 | March 2013 | Tirreno-Adriatico - Stage 7 |
| 4 | April 2013 | Vuelta al País Vasco - Stage 6 |
| 5 | April 2013 | Tour de Romandie - Stage 5 |
| 6 | May 2013 | Tour of Belgium - Stage 3 |
| 7 | June 2013 | Critérium du Dauphiné - Stage 4 |
| 8 | June 2013 | German National Championships |
| 9 | July 2013 | Tour de France - Stage 11 |
Tony Martin is king for number of wins, but another measure would just be the time you got to spend wearing your jersey. It’s a topic which often comes up in relation to the U23 World Road Race winners. If they are WorldTour riders, they’ll never get to wear their rainbow jersey.
The time trial champions who spent most race days in the Rainbow Jersey were Laurent Jalabert, winner in 1997 and Bert Grabsch, winner in 2008. Perhaps it’s no coincidence that they are two of only five time trial world champions who never before or since even finished on the podium of the worlds. Perhaps they knew that they would only get one shot in this jersey so they had to make the most of it. Both of them took part in 14 time trials in the rainbow jersey - Jalabert won five, Grabsch won two.
On the other end of the scale, the only world time trial champion who never got to wear their rainbow jersey in any race was Jan Ullrich, winner in 2001. A disaster of a year followed for him where he barely raced at all. Lucky for Ullrich though he had already been champion in 1999, so he got to spend seven race days in rainbows, but didn’t win any. Ullrich is one of four world champions who never tasted victory in the rainbow jersey, the others are Santiago Botero, Michael Rogers and Tobias Foss. Rogers is the most remarkable one given that he was time trial world champ three times. One of his years was hijacked by David Millar in 2003 who actually spent the year with the jersey, but even if we imagine Rogers had gotten to wear the jersey for that year, his total wins as world champion would still be at zero. In fact, Rogers is only of only two world champions who never won a Grand Tour time trial throughout their entire career. The other is Foss, who still has time to rectify that.
As we know in cycling, not all wins are created equally. And stage wins in Grand Tours are worth so much more than stage wins in any other races and there have been surprisingly few Grand Tour time trial victories by world champions. At the Vuelta, in the earlier days when this became a possibility, there were stage wins by Alex Zulle and Abraham Olano, but that’s it. Olano’s stage win in 1998 is the last time a rainbow jersey has won a time trial at the Vuelta. At the Tour de France, it didn’t happen at all until Fabian Cancellara smashed through the streets of London during the prologue in 2007. Cancellara and Tony Martin between them won six stages in rainbows at the Tour, a tally added to since only by Tom Dumoulin and Remco Evenepoel. Wins at the Giro are as rare as those at the Vuelta, only Filippo Ganna and Tom Dumoulin have managed it. This makes Tom Dumoulin the only rider who has won a time trial in two of the three Grand Tours in the rainbow jersey.
Grand Tour Time Trial Wins
| # | Year | Grand Tour | Rider |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1997 | Vuelta | Alex Zulle |
| 2 | 1999 | Vuelta | Abraham Olano |
| 3 | 2007 | Tour | Fabian Cancellara |
| 4 | 2008 | Tour | Fabian Cancellara |
| 5 | 2010 | Tour | Fabian Cancellara |
| 6 | 2010 | Tour | Fabian Cancellara |
| 7 | 2013 | Tour | Tony Martin |
| 8 | 2014 | Tour | Tony Martin |
| 9 | 2018 | Giro | Tom Dumoulin |
| 10 | 2018 | Tour | Tom Dumoulin |
| 11 | 2021 | Giro | Filippo Ganna |
| 12 | 2021 | Giro | Filippo Ganna |
| 13 | 2023 | Tour | Remco Evenepoel |
The only world champions to never even get to ride a Grand Tour stage in the rainbow jersey have been Tobias Foss and Bradley Wiggins. The year Wiggins spent in rainbows was 2015 where he was already deep into his multi-year retirement plan where he had already switched focus to Rio 2016 in the velodrome. He switched from Team Sky to Team Wiggins in April of that year. The 2013 Giro was the last Grand Tour he ever raced.
