Victor Kampenaerts, the 2017 and 2018 European time trial champion, believes he has what it takes to make the podium at the World Championships Elite Men's Time Trial in Imola, Italy, on Friday. He also believes that his compatriot Wout Van Aert will be his biggest rival for the title, and he cannot rule out the possibility of two Belgians on the podium.

Besides Van Aert, Kampenaerts also lists defending champion Rohan Dennis of Australia, Italy's Filippo Ganna, and Switzerland's Stefan Küng as potential winners, as well as 2017 world champion Tom Dumoulin, "The course for him might be too fast for him," the 28-year-old said.

Dumoulin, Van Aert, and Küng have all competed in the Tour de France, which many believe gives them an advantage over the other favorites, but Campenaerts disagrees.

"I am convinced that I have an advantage over the riders who have competed in the Tour," Campenaerts told Het Nieuwsblad on Thursday. 'Tirreno-Adriatico was ideal preparation. The riders who took part in the Tour were aiming for their own goals, not for the World Championships.

"But Wout has great strength," the young compatriot, who served Jumbo-Visma team leader Primoz Roglic at the Tour, winning two stages and finishing fourth in the uphill time trial to La Planche de Belle Fille on the final stage He spoke about.

"It's enough to see how well he performed at the end of a tough Tour in a time trial that wasn't made for him," Campenaerts said. 'So I'm not going to argue here that a rider from the Tour can't be a world champion.'

Campenaerts is also aware that he and Van Aert were teammates and rivals in Friday's time trial and will likely be Belgium's second fastest in the individual time trial at next summer's Olympic Games in Tokyo.

Deceuninck-QuickStep's Remco Evenepoel, who crashed in Il Lombardia in mid-August and is out injured with a fractured pelvis, has already won one of the two slots, having won the European Championship time trial last year, Either Campenaerts or Van Aert will surely be selected for the second slot.

"Wout is much more reliable on the road and a better time triallist on paper," Campenaerts admitted, "but I try not to think about Tokyo."

He added that he is good friends with Van Aert, but does not know him as well as his former teammate Yves Lampère.

"Wout is a nice guy, but I don't have the same kind of relationship with him, for example, because I regularly shared a room with Yves when I was on the TopSport Van Deren team (in 2014).

"That's how you get close to someone. We go to see the courses separately and we prepare in different ways. We share a campervan for the time trial, but that's it. It would be great to take it to the next level. I wouldn't rule out the possibility of two Belgians on the podium.

At last year's World Championships in Yorkshire, England, Campenaerts crashed in the time trial and finished 11th.

"In cycling you have a lot of chances," he said. 'When you only remember the things that didn't go right, it's depressing. Riders lose more often than they win. I mainly think about the good moments."

"I aim for the podium and dream of a world title," Campenaerts concluded.