The master of ceremonies, at a press conference, immediately set the scene for the performance before giving the floor to the winner. “Ivan, you are the first Spaniard since José Ivan Gutierrez in 1999 to win the world title in the time trial among the Espoirs, that’s 25 years ago”. Ivan Romeo smiles. 25 years ago, the Hispanic wasn’t even born. But besides this statistic, which is worth what it’s worth, the main thing is of course elsewhere for a boy who caused a sensation by winning the world title right under the noses of the two main favourites, the super-powerful rollers Jakob Söderqvist and Alec Segaert, the Swede winning silver while the Belgian didn’t even finish on the podium (see ranking). “It’s amazing. I can’t believe it. It’s been a dream since I was a kid. I’ve always loved the time trial discipline. I’ve been waiting a long time for a great result like this and it’s here today. It means so much to me!”
A pro at Movistar for two years, he assures that he has prepared specifically for this event as he has never done for any other race before. “When I discovered the layout of this World Cup, I knew that it was potentially made for me and I put this event in my head. It even became my main objective of the season. I wanted to prepare for it thoroughly”. Thus, Ivan Romeo explains for DirectVelo to have passed “the last two months thinking only about this stopwatch” and the “last fifteen days riding only on the time trial machine in training”despite three Italian semi-classics contested on September 11, 12 and 14, including the Marco Pantani Memorial where he spent around a hundred kilometers at the front.
Throughout the rest of the season, the Spaniard did not achieve any remarkable performances against the clock. 10th in the UAE Tour time trial at the start of the year, then 13th in the Tour of Belgium, 7th in Burgos, Ivan Romeo only took 6th place in his national Championship last June, finishing 30 seconds behind a certain Markel Beloki, the other Spanish representative this Monday in the Espoirs time trial. “But it’s not comparable because I didn’t prepare for these times at all like I prepared for today’s.”he assures when asked if he felt capable of winning the rainbow given his results this year against the pros. “On my other times, I had some good days, others less good… Here, I knew how to use this course perfectly to make a difference in the bumps, take enough risks in the descents without making a mistake, before finishing very strongly on the part along the lake”. It was his day.
