{"id":621980,"date":"2026-06-05T04:27:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-05T04:27:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/621980\/"},"modified":"2026-06-05T04:27:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-05T04:27:09","slug":"people-act-as-if-its-disappointing-when-evenepoel-doesnt-win-the-tour","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/621980\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cPeople act as if it’s disappointing when Evenepoel doesn’t win the Tour\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"


\nFor Wuyts, though, the constant Tour-based judgment risks flattening a career that already contains achievements most riders never come close to matching. \u201cPeople sometimes act as if it is disappointing when Evenepoel does not win the Tour,\u201d Wuyts said in the Tour special of Wieler Revue<\/a>.Wuyts points to exceptional rivalsEvenepoel\u2019s 2026 Tour build comes with pressure from several directions. Red Bull – BORA – hansgrohe<\/a> have shaped a long, controlled preparation around July, while Evenepoel\u2019s own status inside the wider GC picture is under more scrutiny than at any point since his first Tour podium.<\/p>\n

He remains a former Grand Tour winner, a world road race champion, an Olympic champion and one of the finest time triallists in the sport. Yet the Tour continues to dominate the way his career is discussed, especially in Belgium, where the search for a home rider capable of winning yellow has carried its own weight for decades.<\/p>\n

Wuyts believes that context around Evenepoel\u2019s rivals is too often overlooked. \u201cWhen you have to race against riders like Pogacar and Van der Poel, you come up against a level that is exceptional,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

That has become the reality of Evenepoel\u2019s era. Pogacar has built one of the most complete palmares in modern cycling while still operating at the centre of the Tour de France<\/a> conversation. Mathieu van der Poel continues to define classics and cyclocross greatness in his own sphere. Vingegaard remains the one rider with repeated Tour-winning proof against Pogacar.<\/p>\n

Evenepoel has had to chase his own place among that group while carrying Belgium\u2019s expectations into every major target.<\/p>\n

A career already packed with major wins<\/p>\n

Wuyts\u2019 defence rests on Evenepoel\u2019s existing record, not on lowering the bar for what he might still achieve. The Belgian has already won the Vuelta a Espana, become world champion on the road, claimed Olympic gold, won Monuments and built one of the most decorated careers of his generation.<\/p>\n

The Tour, though, has become the test that follows him everywhere. A podium finish in 2024 strengthened the idea that he could eventually move closer to Pogacar and Vingegaard, but the past two seasons have made that progression less straightforward.<\/p>\n

His climbing and GC results have not always followed the expected line, while the number of serious challengers around him has grown. Seixas has exploded into the top level at just 19. Lipowitz already has a Tour podium and has often looked the stronger pure climber in Red Bull colours. Del Toro and Almeida add further depth to a field where Evenepoel is no longer the automatic third name.<\/p>\n

That does not erase what Evenepoel brings. His time trialling, one-day pedigree and Grand Tour experience still give him a route into the Tour that few others can match. It does make the expectation of a Tour victory feel more complicated than it looked after 2024.<\/p>\n

Expectations still follow Evenepoel to July<\/p>\n

Wuyts sees the issue in the scale of the expectations now attached to Evenepoel. \u201cIt is just that expectations have now become so high that almost everything is measured against winning the Tour,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

That sentence captures the pressure around Evenepoel before Barcelona. He can arrive as one of the most dangerous riders in the race without being the clear third favourite. He can be a genuine threat without being Pogacar\u2019s equal. He can still have an extraordinary career even if yellow in Paris remains out of reach.<\/p>\n

The 2026 Tour may yet reshape that discussion. A strong opening team time trial, a controlled mountain performance and another deep GC run would immediately put Evenepoel back at the centre of the podium fight. A difficult July would bring the old questions back just as quickly.<\/p>\n

Wuyts\u2019 argument is that the verdict should not depend only on one race. Evenepoel\u2019s Tour dream remains alive, but his career has already moved far beyond the idea that it needs yellow to be validated.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" For Wuyts, though, the constant Tour-based judgment risks flattening a career that already contains achievements most riders…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":542016,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[4985,172469,20997,7133,101,8782,6549,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-621980","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-cycling","tag-michel-wuyts","tag-red-bull-bora-hansgrohe","tag-remco-evenepoel","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\/621980","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=621980"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/621980\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/542016"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=621980"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=621980"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=621980"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}