Belgium's Victor Campenaerts finished eighth in the elite men's time trial at the World Championships in Imola, Italy, on Friday. 28-year-old Campenaerts told Belgian media after the race that he was not disappointed because he gave it his all, but admitted that he wanted to do better because he was aiming for the podium. He admitted after the race that he was not disappointed because he gave it his all, but that he was aiming for the podium and would have liked to have done better.

On Thursday, Campenaerts said he had expected two Belgians to be on the podium in the World Championship TT time trial, but only his compatriot Wout van Aert was able to make the top three, with Italy's Filippo Ganna second and Switzerland's Stefan Küng was last on the podium.

Campenaerts finished eighth, 53 seconds behind Ganna and 23 seconds behind Cung, but the Belgian, who won the bronze medal in this event in 2018 and was European champion in the discipline in 2017 and 2018, had no excuse other than that today was not his day He did not.

"I had a good time trial, but not my best," Campenaerts said on Friday, according to Sporza.

"The time trial wasn't bad, but you can't get on the podium at the World Championships unless you run a superlative time trial, and I think I did that.

"I had to hope for a good day and I got it, but it wasn't a super day.

"It was windy early on and we knew we had to start hard. But in the last three kilometers I had to slow down a bit," Kampenaerts said of the mainly flat 31.7-kilometer course.

"Not super happy," he said.

However, the second of two positions for Belgium in the individual time trial at next year's Olympic Games in Tokyo has yet to be decided.