Remco Evenepoel – Wikipedia

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Belgian cyclist

Remco Evenepoel (born 25 January 2000) is a Belgian cyclist who currently rides for UCI WorldTeam Soudal–Quick-Step.[3]

He is the son of Patrick Evenepoel, a former racing cyclist who won the 1993 Grand Prix de Wallonie.[4] Remco Evenepoel started his sport career in association football, playing for the youth teams of R.S.C. Anderlecht and PSV Eindhoven, as well as being featured in the youth national teams of Belgium. Realising that his physical abilities made him more suited for cycling, he switched to the discipline in 2017. After winning the road race and time trial in the junior categories at the 2018 UCI Road World Championships, Evenepoel turned professional with Deceuninck–Quick-Step, skipping the under-23 rank.

Evenepoel won the 2022 Vuelta a España and the 2022 UCI World Road Race Championships two weeks later.

Junior career[edit]

The son of the former professional cyclist Patrick Evenepoel, Remco Evenepoel started his sporting career as a football player. At the age of five he joined Anderlecht. When he was eleven years old he changed to the youth academy of PSV Eindhoven returning to Anderlecht again at the age of fourteen. He played four times for the Belgian U15 team and five times for the Belgian U16. After some setbacks and disappointments he made a switch to cycling in 2017. He won both the time trial and road race at the 2018 European Junior Road Cycling Championships. The gap between him and the second place rider in the road race was 9 minutes and 44 seconds.[5][6]

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Later in the year, Evenepoel also won both the road race and the time trial at the UCI Junior Road World Championships.[7]

Deceuninck–Quick-Step[edit]

2019[edit]

Electing to skip the under-23 ranks, Evenepoel announced in July 2018 that he would join Deceuninck–Quick-Step for the 2019 season.[8] For his first season, Evenepoel was scheduled to compete in shorter stage races, and skipped the cobbled, one-day Classic races.[9][10] In his debut race, the Vuelta a San Juan, Evenepoel won the young rider classification and 9th overall whilst also winning his first professional podium in the stage 3 time trial behind teammate Julian Alaphilippe and Valerio Conti.[11] Evenepoel’s first professional victory came at the Tour of Belgium, where he won the general classification as well as a stage and the points classification.[12] On 3 August 2019 Evenepoel scored his first World Tour victory when he won the Clásica de San Sebastián. He escaped from the field, accompanied by Toms Skujiņš about 20 km (12 mi) from the finish, dropping his companion on the last hill and soloing to victory.[13] He became the third-youngest rider ever to win a cycling classic in the history of the sport.[14] On 8 August 2019, Evenepoel won the time trial at the 2019 European Road Championships.[15] At the World Championships in September, Evenepoel would have been eligible to still ride in the under-23 category, but decided against it and started in the elite men’s events.[16] He went on to win the silver medal in the time trial.[17] He spent much of the year sharing a room with Philippe Gilbert who acted in a mentoring role.[18]

2020[edit]

Evenepoel started the 2020 season at the Vuelta a San Juan, where he won the individual time trial on stage 3 and the general classification.[19] He then competed at the Volta ao Algarve. Here, he won stage 2 as well as the final stage, a time trial, to clinch overall victory ahead of Maximilian Schachmann.[20]

After the extended break in the cycling calendar due to the COVID-19 pandemic, he won the Vuelta a Burgos[21] and the Tour de Pologne.[22]

Evenepoel suffered a serious accident at Il Lombardia. While descending the Muro di Sormano and after a sharp curve, he collided with a low wall on the side of a bridge and was thrown over it with the impact, falling in a dirt area near some trees, several meters below the road.[23] No other cyclists were involved in the accident and he was swiftly removed from the scene by the emergency services, being conscious and responsive all the time. Hours later, his team reported that he had suffered a fractured pelvis and a right lung contusion, also stating that he would not be returning to competition in the near future.[24]

2021[edit]

Evenepoel returned to competition in the 2021 Giro d’Italia, finishing 7th in the prologue time trial, after which he said: “I was standing on the start ramp with some tears in my eyes. It was a hard way to come back and start the Giro like this. But immediately a top-10 spot, I didn’t expect it – I’m really happy.”[25] After spending the first 15 stages in the top-10 of the general classification, he crashed during stage 17 and was unable to continue the race.[26]

He competed in the rescheduled 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo in both the road race and time trial earning a top 10 place in the latter. During the 2021 World Championships in Flanders he claimed his second elite level world championship medal, taking the bronze in the time trial. Evenepoel was the centre of a furore in the World road race. Ahead of the race, it was felt that Wout van Aert was the protected leader for a Belgian team that was very hopeful of a home win,[27] and Eddy Merckx stated to Het Nieuwsblad that “If there is only one leader, you really shouldn’t take Evenepoel […] He rides mainly for himself; we saw that at the Olympics”. Evenepoel responded “He always has to say something and that’s a shame […] Maybe it stings that I didn’t ride for his son’s team. I have a lot of respect for Eddy and apparently that is not mutual.” On the race ahead “I’m here to work for Belgium, for Wout, because I know that it’s the chance of his life to be world champion. He’s in the form of his life, and it would be stupid of me to ride for myself. On this parcours, no one is stronger than Wout. I said already a lot of times that I will do everything [for] Wout.”[28]

In the road race Evenepoel appeared to answer Merckx’ criticism that he is a selfish cyclist by joining an early attack with 180 km still to race, followed by a second mid-race attack, and then created the decisive selection in the finals laps.[29] Van Aert was unable to win the race, which was won by Julian Alaphilippe. After the race, people from the world of cycling such as Evenepoel’s trade team boss Patrick Lefevere praised Evenepoel’s strength and wondered if the Belgian team had made the wrong choice of leader.[30] Lefevere asked: “[W]hy did the Belgians want to break open the race so early? And above all, why did they throw Remco into the fray so early? For me, Remco was the best man in the race after Julian. But they just sacrificed him and rolled out the red carpet for Julian.”[31]

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Evenepoel responded to the criticism of Belgium’s tactics by revealing that he felt could have won the race but that “[o]n Friday evening before the World Championships there was a meeting with everyone. It was very unclear to me what exactly was expected of me. So after sleeping on it, the next day I went to coaches Sven Vanthourenhout and Serge Pauwels and asked: ‘What do you expect from me in concrete terms?’ “I also said straight out that I thought I might be able to win the race in a certain scenario. ‘Do I get a chance or not?’ I asked. ‘No,’ was the answer.”[29] This caused a rift in the team; Van Aert said “I expected to hear criticism because we didn’t win but that it came from someone on the team is not smart and only serves to add fuel to the fire. It’s a shame, and I regret it. Remco issued more criticism on TV than in the team meeting”[32] and “He was the one who agreed with the tactics, who agreed with the selection. He has been preaching for weeks on end how he was looking forward to it so I think it’s really weird to turn 180 degrees now”.[33]

Days after the race Belgian team-mate Jasper Stuyven said that Evenepoel had failed to show up for the team debrief: “Everyone was there, except Remco […] He was aware, but didn’t think it was necessary. I think that is a shame, especially because he thought it necessary to say things on TV. That stuck with some of us. […] I think that Remco should sometimes be slowed down by his entourage. He still has to learn when he can and cannot say things. Also, a super-strong rider – which he certainly is – should realise that some things should remain internal.”[34]

2022[edit]

Evenepoel riding at the 2022 UCI Road World Championships

On 24 April, at the age of 22, Evenepoel won his first cycling monument in Liège–Bastogne–Liège after a 29.6 km solo effort with a 48-second lead on the runner-up. It was his first participation in this cycling classic. He completed the 257.1 km with an average speed of 41.397 km/h, which was the fastest edition in the history of La Doyenne. He won the 2022 Clásica de San Sebastián by launching a successful 44 kilometre solo attack, finishing nearly two minutes ahead of second-placed Pavel Sivakov.[35]

In early September, Evenepoel won the 2022 Vuelta a España, his first Grand Tour triumph.[36] Evenepoel took the red jersey after stage 6 of the race, which finished with a 800m climb to a mountain-top finish in San Miguel de Aguayo. While the stage was won by Jay Vine, Evenepoel managed to finish second, putting significant time into his general classification rivals, including Primož Roglič, the pre-race favorite.[37] Evenepoel extended his general classification lead to 2 minutes and 41 seconds after a dominant performance on the stage 10 individual time trial, finishing the 30.9 km course in 33 minutes and 18 seconds, 48 seconds ahead of second-place Roglič.[38] The following challenging mountain stages saw Roglič and Enric Mas claw back some time, reducing Evenepoel’s general classification lead to as little as 1 minute and 26 seconds.[39] However, following Roglič’s withdrawal from the race after a crash at the end of stage 16, Evenepoel won stage 18, another mountain-top finish, securing a 2-minute and 7-second advantage over Mas, which would prove unassailable over the final 2 stages.[40] Arriving in Madrid, Evenepoel’s margin of victory was 2 minutes and 2 seconds over second place Mas and 4 minutes and 57 seconds over third place Juan Ayuso.[41]

In September, Evenepoel competed in both the Individual Time Trial and Road Race at the 2022 UCI Road World Championships in Wollongong, Australia. He finished 3rd in the time trial, 9 seconds behind winner Tobias Foss.[42] One week later, he won the road race, finishing two minutes and 21 seconds ahead of France’s Christophe Laporte.[43] Having made it into a breakaway with 32 km to go, Evenepoel managed to break free from Alexey Lutsenko with 25 km to go and ride solo to the finish for his first World Championship victory at the Elite level.

Career achievements[edit]

Major results[edit]

General classification results timeline[edit]

Classics results timeline[edit]

Major championships timeline[edit]

Records[edit]

Honours and awards[edit]

A statue on the Fóia mountain in Portugal was based on Evenepoel’s victory in stage 2 of the 2020 Volta ao Algarve[56]

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b “Remco Evenepoel, Deceuninck – Quick-Step Cycling team”. Retrieved 2 August 2020.
  2. ^ Ryan, Barry (31 December 2019). “2020 Team Preview: Deceuninck-QuickStep”. Cyclingnews.com. Retrieved 2 January 2020.
  3. ^ “Deceuninck – Quick-Step”. UCI.org. Union Cycliste Internationale. Archived from the original on 1 January 2021. Retrieved 1 January 2021.
  4. ^ “Evenepoel: My dream is to win a Grand Tour”. 9 January 2019. Retrieved 6 March 2020.
  5. ^ Brown, Gregor (28 September 2018). “Tom Boonen: ‘Remco Evenepoel needs to learn to ride tactically at WorldTour level’“. Cycling Weekly. Retrieved 25 February 2020.
  6. ^ “European Continental Championships MJ – Road Race (CC)”. procyclingstats.com. Retrieved 25 February 2020.
  7. ^ MacLeary, John (27 September 2018). “Remco Evenepoel doubles up at world championships as Belgium starts to believe it has found ‘next Eddy Merckx’“. The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 25 February 2020.
  8. ^ “Evenepoel vanaf 2019 al prof bij Quick-Step: “Sky kwam nog met gek bod”“ [Evenepoel from 2019: pro at Quick-Step already: “Sky came with crazy bid”]. Sporza (in Dutch). Vlaamse Radio- en Televisieomroeporganisatie. 18 July 2018. Retrieved 2 January 2019.
  9. ^ “Evenepoel reveals schedule for debut with Deceuninck-QuickStep”. Cyclingnews.com. 7 November 2018. Retrieved 2 January 2019.
  10. ^ “Evenepoel will not ride cobbled Classics in 2019”. Cyclingnews.com. 10 December 2018. Retrieved 2 January 2019.
  11. ^ “Vuelta a San Juan Stage 3 Results” (PDF).
  12. ^ “Baloise Belgium Tour: Evenepoel takes overall victory”. Cyclingnews.com. 16 June 2019. Retrieved 29 June 2019.
  13. ^ Malach, Pat (3 August 2019). “Evenepoel wins Clasica San Sebastián”. cyclingnews.com. Retrieved 5 August 2019.
  14. ^ Long, Jonny (4 August 2019). “‘In the last four kilometres I had tears in my eyes’: Remco Evenepoel emotional after debut classics victory”. Cycling Weekly. Retrieved 5 August 2019.
  15. ^ Frattini, Kirsten (8 August 2019). “UEC Road European Championships 2019: Men’s time trial Results”. cyclingnews.com.
  16. ^ Ryan, Barry (13 September 2019). “Evenepoel daring to dream ahead of World Championships”. cyclingnews.com. Retrieved 25 February 2020.
  17. ^ Frattini, Kirsten (25 September 2019). “Remco Evenepoel: The silver medal feels like gold at this World Championships”. cyclingnews.com. Retrieved 25 February 2020.
  18. ^ Hood, Andrew (3 December 2019). “Gilbert on Evenepoel: ‘At first I didn’t take him seriously’“. VeloNews. Retrieved 25 February 2020.
  19. ^ Ryan, Barry (2 February 2020). “Remco Evenepoel wins Vuelta a San Juan”. cyclingnews.com. Retrieved 25 February 2020.
  20. ^ “Volta ao Algarve stage 5: Remco Evenepoel tops Rohan Dennis to win TT and secure overall”. VeloNews. 23 February 2020. Retrieved 25 February 2020.
  21. ^ Fotheringham, Alasdair (1 August 2020). “Remco Evenepoel wins Vuelta a Burgos”. CyclingNews. Retrieved 1 August 2020.
  22. ^ Gadzała, Paweł (9 August 2020). “Remco Evenepoel wins Tour de Pologne”. CyclingNews. Retrieved 9 August 2020.
  23. ^ “Remco Evenepoel suffers bridge fall after crash during Il Lombardia”. bbc.com. 15 August 2020. Retrieved 16 August 2020.
  24. ^ “Remco Evenepoel Update”. deceuninck-quickstep.com. 15 August 2020. Retrieved 16 August 2020.
  25. ^ “Giro d’Italia: What the stars said after opening stage time trial”. velonews. 8 May 2021. Retrieved 9 May 2021.
  26. ^ “Evenepoel out of Giro d’Italia after stage 17 crash”. Cyclingnews. 26 May 2021. Retrieved 27 May 2021.
  27. ^ “Wout Van Aert Is Top Favorite For 2021 UCI Road Worlds – FloBikes”. www.flobikes.com.
  28. ^ Ostanek, Daniel (24 September 2021). “Remco Evenepoel disappointed by Merckx criticism ahead of Worlds road race”. cyclingnews.com.
  29. ^ a b “Remco Evenepoel: I had the legs to become world champion”. cyclingnews.com. 30 September 2021.
  30. ^ “Where did it all go wrong for the home team in the Flanders Worlds finale?”. CyclingTips. 26 September 2021.
  31. ^ Bonville-Ginn, Tim (27 September 2021). “‘Remco Evenepoel was the best man in the race after Julian Alaphilippe’: Lefevere baffled by Belgian tactics at World Championships”. cyclingweekly.com.
  32. ^ “Wout van Aert claps back at Remco Evenepoel criticism of Belgian worlds tactics”. 1 October 2021.
  33. ^ “Van Aert pushes back at Evenepoel after his “really weird” comments”. Sticky Bottle. 1 October 2021.
  34. ^ “Evenepoel refused to show up for Belgium’s Worlds debrief, Stuyven reveals”. cyclingnews.com. 25 October 2021.
  35. ^ Goddard, Ben (30 July 2022). “Evenepoel rides to victory in Clásica San Sebastián”. CyclingNews. Retrieved 30 July 2022.
  36. ^ “Vuelta a España: Belgium’s Remco Evenepoel seals maiden Grand Tour win”. BBC Sport. 11 September 2022. Retrieved 13 September 2022.
  37. ^ “Jay Vine wins stage 6 at Vuelta a España 2022 as Remco Evenepoel takes overall lead”. Olympics. 26 August 2022. Retrieved 9 October 2022.
  38. ^ “Remco Evenepoel dominates time trial to strengthen grip on Vuelta a España 2022”. Olympics. 31 August 2022. Retrieved 9 October 2022.
  39. ^ “VUELTA 2022: ARENSMAN CLIMBS TO TRIUMPH, EVENEPOEL KEEPS LA ROJA”. Cycling Stage. 5 September 2022. Retrieved 9 October 2022.
  40. ^ “Remco Evenepoel wins stage 18 of 2022 Vuelta a Espana to cement overall lead”. Olympics. 9 September 2022. Retrieved 9 October 2022.
  41. ^ “Remco Evenepoel cruises to Vuelta a España victory in final stage”. Guardian. 11 September 2022. Retrieved 13 September 2022.
  42. ^ “UCI Road World Championships Live – Foss takes shock time trial victory”. Cycling News. 19 September 2022. Retrieved 26 September 2022.
  43. ^ “Remco Evenepoel: Belgium rider wins World Championship road race after solo breakaway”. BBC Sport. 25 September 2022. Retrieved 26 September 2022.
  44. ^ Remco Evenepoel wint alles en dus ook de Kristallen Fiets voor Beste Jongere van het Jaar, hln.be, 5 december 2018
  45. ^ Remco Evenepoel kroont zich tot Belofte van het Jaar, standaard.be, 22 december 2018
  46. ^ “Remco Evenepoel jongste Sportman van het Jaar ooit, Nina Derwael opnieuw Sportvrouw van het Jaar”. De Morgen. 21 December 2019.
  47. ^ “Remco Evenepoel en Nafi Thiam kronen zich tot Sportman en -vrouw van het Jaar”. Sporza (in Dutch). Retrieved 6 January 2023.
  48. ^ “Remco Evenepoel wint Kristallen Fiets als beste Belgische renner”.
  49. ^ “Remco Evenepoel en Lotte Kopecky zijn de (verwachte) winnaars van de Kristallen Fiets”. Sporza (in Dutch). 12 October 2022.
  50. ^ “Remco Evenepoel en Lotte Kopecky zijn ook de Flandrien(ne) van het Jaar”. Sporza (in Dutch). 18 October 2022.
  51. ^ “Wereldkampioen en Vuelta-winnaar Remco Evenepoel krijgt ook Nationale Trofee voor Sportverdienste”. Sporza (in Dutch). 20 October 2022.
  52. ^ “Remco Evenepoel klopt Wout van Aert en wint Vélo d’Or, Lotte Kopecky tweede bij de vrouwen: “Dit is de Ballon d’Or van de koers!”“. Het Nieuwsblad (in Dutch). 1 December 2022.
  53. ^ “Nog een prijs erbij: Remco Evenepoel krijgt nu ook Vlaamse Reus” (in Dutch). Sporza. 2 December 2022.
  54. ^ “En daar is prijs nummer zes: Remco Evenepoel krijgt ook Vlaams Sportjuweel”. Het Laatste Nieuws (in Dutch). 15 December 2022.
  55. ^ “Remco Evenepoel (22) is de Belg van het Jaar 2022: “Het doet iets met ons dat we veel mensen hebben geïnspireerd”“. Het Laatste Nieuws (in Dutch). 30 December 2022.
  56. ^ “Three presidents inaugurate cyclist sculpture on top of Foia”. Sulinformacao.pt. 22 September 2021.

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