{"id":286841,"date":"2025-11-16T13:47:12","date_gmt":"2025-11-16T13:47:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/286841\/"},"modified":"2025-11-16T13:47:12","modified_gmt":"2025-11-16T13:47:12","slug":"evenepoel-still-aches-after-tour-de-france-but-is-already-looking-forward-with-roubaix-an-flanders-as-possibilities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/286841\/","title":{"rendered":"Evenepoel still aches after Tour de France, but is already looking forward, with Roubaix an Flanders as possibilities"},"content":{"rendered":"

Remco Evenepoel<\/a> can once again look back on a successful year. Sure, the Classics<\/a> didn\u2019t bring the victories he had hoped for, and the Tour de France<\/a> turned into a disappointment. But with both the European and world titles in the time trial, it was still a fantastic season. Once more, the Belgian is in pole position to win the Kristallen Fiets (Crystal Bicycle).<\/p>\n

He has already won the prize for best Belgian cyclist four times. Only Johan Museeuw has more, but Evenepoel can now equal his record. The Lion of Flanders would be more than happy to hand him the trophy himself. \u201cNo doubt about it. And honestly: I don\u2019t mind. Of course I\u2019m proud of my trophies. For me, the Kristallen Fiets is still the Golden Boot of cycling. But it\u2019s been long enough.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a joint interview with Museeuw for Het Laatste Nieuws, Evenepoel reacts modestly to the nomination from his compatriot. \u201cI\u2019d be incredibly honoured to equal you, Johan. <\/p>\n

The voters certainly shouldn\u2019t hold back, there\u2019s still room in my trophy cabinet. But it won\u2019t be an automatic victory. Merlier deserves it too.\u201d Tim Merlier racked up no fewer than sixteen wins this year, including two stage victories in the Tour de France.<\/p>\n

At that Tour, Evenepoel had the toughest race of his entire season. In stage 14 he had to abandon. “I\u2019d expected more from the Tour. <\/p>\n

And with the Brabantse Pijl<\/a> I only won one one-day race. Straight away on my comeback, though, in a head-to-head with Wout \u2013 nice. Purely emotionally, that was my most beautiful victory, after a tough month with the loss of my good friend Pascal.\u201d Family friend Pascal Vanherberghen passed away at the age of 60 in march.<\/p>\n

Continue reading below the photo!<\/p>\n

\"remcoEvenepoel still frustrated with Tour: \u201cI knew beforehand I wasn\u2019t on the same level as in 2024\u201d<\/p>\n

Evenepoel would have liked to approach the Tour de France very differently. \u201cI knew beforehand that I wasn\u2019t on the same level as in 2024,\u201d he says. “My body wasn\u2019t ready to fight for the general classification for three weeks. I communicated that inside the team as well. \u2018Wouldn\u2019t it be better to target stage wins?\u2019 I asked. But such a last-minute switch turned out to be difficult.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSo we decided to go for it anyway, hoping it would still turn out well. It didn\u2019t. After ten very good days I was completely empty, because I had to go way too far over my limit.\u201d Evenepoel still won the time trial in Caen, but things got much harder once the race hit the Pyrenees<\/a>. On the road to Luchon\u2013Superbagn\u00e8res he had to step off the bike, climbing into the team car while wearing the white jersey.<\/p>\n

Continue reading below the photo!<\/p>\n

\"remco-evenepoel\"\/Evenepoel hopes to close gap to Pogacar with \u201cproper, drama-free winter\u201d<\/p>\n

Evenepoel had a top season, but in Fl\u00e8che Wallonne, Li\u00e8ge\u2013Bastogne\u2013Li\u00e8ge, the Crit\u00e9rium du Dauphin\u00e9, the Tour de France, the World Championships, the European Championships and Il Lombardia, he had to bow each time to an overwhelmingly strong Tadej Pogacar. The gap between the two rivals is still enormous uphill, but the Belgian doesn\u2019t think it\u2019s unbridgeable.<\/p>\n

How does he plan to close it? \u201cWith specific training at super-high intensity. Because of crashes, injuries, rehab and a lack of a solid base, I\u2019ve rarely \u2013 if ever \u2013 been able to do that in recent years. After a proper, drama-free winter I really want to work hard on that. Then it could well be that I take two, three steps forward compared to this past season.\u201d<\/p>\n

Continue reading below the photo!<\/p>\n

\"evenepoel-pogacar\"\/Museeuw: \u201cAll the big Classics are within your possibilities\u201d<\/p>\n

Museeuw secretly hopes that Evenepoel will focus a little less on Grand Tours. The Flanders legend\u2019s heart beats faster when his compatriot does his thing in the Ardennes. But the now 60-year-old Belgian thinks Evenepoel can do much more than he realises. During Remco\u2019s first altitude camp with Quick-Step, Museeuw already told him he believed all the Monuments were within reach. He repeats that message now.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll the big Classics are within your possibilities,\u201d he stresses. \u201cYou have the luxury of being able to choose from so many things you can win. The Tour is undeniably the very highest, followed closely by the Worlds. But\u2026 the Tour of Flanders and Roubaix would really complete your palmar\u00e8s. Pogacar hasn\u2019t set his sights on them \u2018just for fun\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

Evenepoel himself also wants to ride more Classics, but the Hell of the North still feels a bit further away. \u201cMaybe not yet this year. One day. In the (near) future,\u201d he smiles. \u201cSooner in Milan\u2013Sanremo and the Tour of Flanders than in Paris-Roubaix, I think. Because those first two suit me better. And they\u2019re easier to combine with the Ardennes Classics.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Remco Evenepoel can once again look back on a successful year. Sure, the Classics didn\u2019t bring the victories…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":286842,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[445],"tags":[49,48,33043,635,5901,5902,82,636],"class_list":["post-286841","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-classics","tag-cycling","tag-remco-evenepoel","tag-soudal-quick-step","tag-sports","tag-tour-de-france"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/286841","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=286841"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/286841\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/286842"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=286841"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=286841"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=286841"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}