{"id":283920,"date":"2025-11-26T07:11:11","date_gmt":"2025-11-26T07:11:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/283920\/"},"modified":"2025-11-26T07:11:11","modified_gmt":"2025-11-26T07:11:11","slug":"remco-could-win-the-tour-in-the-right-conditions-but-to-win-against-pogacar-sean-kellys-maillot-jaune-verdict-on-evenepoel-after-blockbuster-transfer-swi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/283920\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cRemco could win the Tour in the right conditions. But to win against Pogacar\u2026\u201d \u2013 Sean Kelly\u2019s Maillot Jaune verdict on Evenepoel after blockbuster transfer switch"},"content":{"rendered":"


\n\u201cIt scares me that he would get better,\u201d Pogacar said<\/a>. \u201cFor Remco, the change could be good\u2026 it will be interesting if he can take another step. I hope not, because I think he is already quite strong and dominant.\u201dKelly: Evenepoel can win the Tour \u2013 but Pogacar is \u201cuntouchable at the moment\u201d<\/p>\n

Kelly did not hesitate when asked whether Evenepoel has the ability to win the Tour one day. \u201cI think Remco would win the Tour in the right conditions,\u201d he told Velo. \u201cAnd definitely if the two big ones are out of the way.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kelly sees no weakening in that commitment and believes the reigning world champion is operating on a different level altogether. \u201cTo win the Tour against Pogacar is hard to see now,\u201d he said. \u201cIn the first mountain stages in the Tour we saw the way he just rode away. He put two minutes into Vingegaard and almost four minutes into the other guys\u2026 I think he is untouchable at the moment.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jonas Vingegaard<\/a> also remains central to the equation, although Kelly notes the Dane\u2019s age profile may nudge the balance over time. \u201cI think if Remco improves a bit more he will definitely get closer to Vingegaard. And of course Vingegaard is older as well.\u201dRed Bull-BORA\u2019s project: \u201cThey are doing everything for Evenepoel\u201d<\/p>\n

Kelly\u2019s optimism about Evenepoel\u2019s long-term future is tied closely to his belief that the Belgian\u2019s new team environment could elevate his ceiling. The Irishman emphasised that Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe appear fully committed to building their structure around Evenepoel despite the presence of leaders such as Primoz Roglic, Florian Lipowitz, Jai Hindley, Giulio Pellizzari and Dani Martinez.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey definitely need to show to Remco that they are behind him,\u201d Kelly said. \u201cThey are changing staff, they are doing everything for Evenepoel. Their expectation is that he can win the Tour in the next couple of years.\u201d<\/p>\n

But that transformation will take time. For 2026, Kelly does not see Evenepoel dethroning Pogacar:\u00a0\u201cIf he continues at that level he had this year into next year, I dont see anyone challenging him to win the Tour.\u201d<\/p>\n

The long game<\/p>\n

Kelly\u2019s assessment ultimately positions Evenepoel as a future Tour contender rather than an immediate one: a rider whose day may come once Pogacar\u2019s priorities evolve or Vingegaard\u2019s peak begins to soften.<\/p>\n

Until then, patience and continued progression are the essentials. As a roadmap for Red Bull – BORA – hansgrohe\u2019s new flagship signing, it is as clear and realistic as any analysis in the post-transfer fallout.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u201cIt scares me that he would get better,\u201d Pogacar said. \u201cFor Remco, the change could be good\u2026…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":283921,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[4985,9046,20997,7133,70834,101,8782,6549,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-283920","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-cycling","tag-jonas-vingegaard","tag-red-bull-bora-hansgrohe","tag-remco-evenepoel","tag-sean-kelly","tag-sports","tag-tadej-pogacar","tag-tour-de-france","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/283920","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=283920"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/283920\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/283921"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=283920"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=283920"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=283920"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}