Remco Evenepoel debuts with Red Bull on Thursday as quest to take down Pogačar begins: ‘The step I needed to become the best there is.’
(Photo: Maximilian Fries / Red Bull Content Pool)
Updated January 27, 2026 10:02AM
Everybody has an opinion about how Remco Evenepoel’s mega-transfer to Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe will go.
Tadej Pogačar, Alberto Contador, Chris Horner, that dude next door … they’ve all mouthed-off on the talking point of the winter.
Well, the landmark transfer that could transform the WorldTour meets its moment of reckoning Thursday at the Mallorca Challenge.
Fresh from celebrating his 26th birthday while on vacation in South Africa with his wife Oumi, Evenepoel debuts for Red Bull on Thursday at the Trofeo Ses Salines TTT.
It will close a chapter on years of rumor, months of negotiations, and the most headline-grabbing contract coup in the sport.
“This is where the journey will start … it’s a new story that starts for me,” Evenepoel said this week in a gold-plated social media reel.
“Since Red Bull joined this team, I’ve seen this team growing, becoming bigger, with more high-quality riders,” Evenepoel said. “For me, it was the step I needed to become the best rider there is.”
The stakes will be very low Thursday, but Evenepoel’s every move will be under the microscope when he rolls across 24km of Balearic tarmac.
Red Bull unveils its super team makeover of Evenepoel
Evenepoel joins Lipowitz and Roglič at a stacked Red Bull super-squad in 2026. (Photo: Maximilian Fries / Red Bull Content Pool)
Thursday’s TTT will be the unveiling of a super-team makeover unlike any pro cycling has previously seen.
After hitting the WorldTour with Quick-Step as an audacious teen phenom in 2019, Evenepoel broke his contract with the mid-budget squad this winter.
The shiny tools and big bank of Red Bull were all too tempting for a rider on a mission to take down Pogačar at the Tour de France.
It seems Evenepoel got all the sophistication he could wish for this winter.
The now-26-year-old has been tested by Red Bull’s aero geek Dan Bigham in disused underground railway tunnels, optimized in the Specialized “Win Tunnel,” and finessed in Red Bull’s Performance Center.
He’s had his training program turned upside down by a new coach in the hunt for Pogi-slaying watts, and been handed a gold-laden TT bike fit for a world and Olympic champion.
Evenepoel highlighted in a recent Specialized podcast that he felt a smooth off-season training block would put him well-placed to tackle Pogačar in the Ardennes and Tour de France.
“A good winter of preparation would help a lot,” he said. “Every rider knows how important those four, five months of training are. Laying the foundation and grinding out the kilometers, that’s what it’s about.”
Winter ends and the road to the Tour de France begins Thursday in Mallorca for Evenepoel.
Low-key Mallorca TTT a dress rehearsal for the Tour de France
Got enough bling there, Remco? (Photo: Maximilian Fries / Red Bull Content Pool)
The very low-key Mallorca Challenge gained extra significance this winter when organizers made the canny decision to flip the long-running Trofeo Ses Salines road-race to a new TTT format.
There’s surely little coincidence that the tweak was made for the same year the Tour de France begins with a team gallop through the middle of Madrid.
ASO’s new system of awarding GC positions based on individual time across the line will count in July’s TTT. It offers a golden opportunity for a strong time trialist with a team full of sluggers to score the first yellow jersey of the race.
It’s Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe’s dream scenario.
The German team is still waiting for its first yellow jersey since Red Bull pumped it to super team status when it entered pro cycling in summer 2024.
Remco, Florian, we’re looking at you.
Mallorca’s Selinas race offers teams the rare opportunity to test TTT dynamics IRL in an early dress rehearsal for Le Tour. Stage 3 of Paris-Nice in March is the only other UCI-rated opportunity before July.
UAE Emirates-XRG [sans Pogačar, who won’t debut until Strade Bianche], EF Education-EasyPost, Jayco-AlUla, and a handful more WorldTour teams will also be taking the start on Thursday with an eye on Barcelona’s grand départ.
Evenepoel isn’t expected to start any other races this week in Mallorca’s one-day series. An early-season brawl with João Almeida at the 5-day Communitat Valenciana starting next Wednesday is his priority.