{"id":712906,"date":"2026-07-27T02:40:10","date_gmt":"2026-07-27T02:40:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/712906\/"},"modified":"2026-07-27T02:40:10","modified_gmt":"2026-07-27T02:40:10","slug":"ive-shown-that-i-deserve-to-dream-remco-evenepoel-silences-sceptics-with-tour-de-france-runner-up-sport","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/712906\/","title":{"rendered":"‘I’ve shown that I deserve to dream’ \u2013 Remco Evenepoel silences sceptics with Tour de France runner-up sport"},"content":{"rendered":"

Remco Evenepoel<\/a>, still only 26, boasts one of cycling\u2019s all-time greatest palmar\u00e8s. A Grand Tour win, two Olympic golds, four World Championships, a couple of Monuments, and third and now second on GC at the Tour de France<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Yet still doubt surrounds him. Still questions linger if the Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe<\/a> rider can cut it in the high mountains. Still debate rages if he\u2019ll ever be a true contender to win the Tour de France.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The Belgian has just silenced most of them.<\/p>\n

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In his third Tour, and the second he\u2019s completed, Evenepoel finished runner-up behind runaway winner Tadej Poga\u010dar<\/a>. There\u2019s absolutely no shame in losing to the five-time winner and greatest of all time.<\/p>\n

And it\u2019s absolutely true that Evenepoel was the only rider in the race who bettered Poga\u010dar<\/a>. Not once, not twice, but three times. In winning stage 15\u2019s stage up the HC climb of Plateau de Solaison, stage 16\u2019s time trial,<\/a> and finishing second to Poga\u010dar\u2019s fourth on Alpe d\u2019Huez on stage 20.<\/p>\n

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Perhaps now Evenepoel, finally, will get the status he merits. \u201cMaybe expectations from my the outside world were lower after my climbing level in the spring, so the UAE Tour and [Volta a] Catalunya, but from myself and also inside the team, we achieved what we were aiming for: to get a stage win and to finish on the podium like in 2024,\u201d Evenepoel said in Paris, while drinking a sponsor-obligatory Red Bull.<\/p>\n

\u201cTwo stage wins and two very nice second places [also on stage 10] in very hard stages, really shows that I\u2019ve stepped up in terms of my climbing level and performances in the hardest stages.<\/p>\n

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\u201cFor me it was more the fact to prove to myself that I did well to not let go of my dream of stepping on the podium of Grand Tours as much as possible and aiming to try to win them because that\u2019s my career goal.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter this result I\u2019ve shown towards myself, the team and also the outside world that I deserve to dream and aim for that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

\"Remco\n<\/p>\n

(Image credit: Getty Images)<\/p>\n

The scepticism over Evenepoel\u2019s Grand Tour prospects mostly stem from him collapsing midway through the 2023 Vuelta when he was defending champion \u2013 only for him to respond by taking two stage victories and the mountains jersey \u2013 and a similar collapse, also on a stage involving the Col du Tourmalet, at the 2025 Tour.<\/a><\/p>\n

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This year, though, his first season away from Soudal Quick-Step<\/a>, has heralded a change: he is leaner, and he forgo competing in stage races before the Tour in favour of spending longer at altitude. The changes worked.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe fact is, I was still on a very good level on the second weekend and in the third week, in terms of my climbing performance,\u201d Evenepoel reflected. \u201cStage 15 and also yesterday [stage 20] was really good, and on the climb in the time trial I did one of my best ever 15 minutes [power numbers].<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that showed my level at the end of the Tour was really good, and also that I showed no signs of cracking.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter perfect preparation, I showed to myself and to the team that I was on a good level for three weeks and even now I feel pretty fresh with no real fatigue in the body. That\u2019s good and we take that towards the future.\u201d<\/p>\n

The constant noise around Evenepoel is to be expected. He\u2019s Belgian, after all, the only county in the world that often prioritises cycling over football. It\u2019s also the country of Eddy Merckx, the greatest of all time until Poga\u010dar came along, and so the comparisons between Evenepoel and Merckx are as inevitable as they are tedious and unhelpful.<\/p>\n

Fervent speculation over his future was last year\u2019s news \u2013 and in the many years before \u2013 and this year it was over his co-leadership with Florian Lipowitz. Wherever Evenepoel goes, whatever he does, there is a story. He generates additional headlines, too. He\u2019s outspoken, he\u2019s a footballer in a cyclist\u2019s body, he\u2019s an entertainer.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s also matured and settled into his status as one of the sport\u2019s best. In 2024 he was in tears with his third place at the Tour; two years on he looks more comfortable on the podium \u2013 at home, even.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think back then it was special because it was my first Tour and then straight away I was on the podium and in the white jersey. It was actually something I did not dare to dream of at that point,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow we came into this Tour with the mindset of getting a stage and trying to step on the podium, and I just felt in control of myself during the whole Tour. The team as well, in control of how things went.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlready I\u2019ve had so many setbacks in my career that I kinda started to know how to deal with everything. I just know for myself that when everything goes well, I\u2019ll always be calm and have control of situations.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pointing to his wife Oumi who was sat front row in his press conference, he continued: \u201cIt\u2019s not because she\u2019s sitting here, but it\u2019s true that when I come home we almost never speak about cycling.<\/p>\n

\u201cI do my training but when my bike is in the garage we are not living in a cycling world, even though everything is done for cycling. I think we\u2019re very good at managing the on-off button.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite his more relaxed demeanour than two years ago, Evenepoel said that perceptions shouldn\u2019t disguise his delight at his second spot at the Tour.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a very big achievement in my career, to come second behind the guy who equals the record [of most Tour wins]. It\u2019s a really big honour to be on that podium, to live that moment, and it\u2019s something special that maybe I can tell my kids that I was second in the edition where someone equalled the record. It\u2019s something I\u2019ll never forget.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven though I appear to be calm, I\u2019m very happy and proud with everything I did in the last month.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Remco Evenepoel, still only 26, boasts one of cycling\u2019s all-time greatest palmar\u00e8s. A Grand Tour win, two Olympic…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":712907,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[4985,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-712906","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-cycling","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/712906","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=712906"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/712906\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/712907"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=712906"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=712906"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=712906"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}