“], “filter”: { “nextExceptions”: “img, blockquote, div”, “nextContainsExceptions”: “img, blockquote, a.btn, a.o-button”} }”>
Get a free Giordana cycling jersey when you subscribe to Velo with Outside+! It’s our way of celebrating the 2024 Road World Championships in Zurich. Includes free shipping. Hurry, ends Sept. 29.
>”,”name”:”in-content-cta”,”type”:”link”}}”>Join now.
Remco Evenepoel goes into this Sunday’s elite men’s road race world championships as one of the big favorites, but not the top dog.
He’s won two Olympic titles plus the world time trial championship in recent weeks yet even that isn’t enough to put him ahead of Tadej Pogačar.
The latter’s stellar year eclipses even what Evenepoel has achieved, but he will try to get the upper hand on Sunday.
“We have had to miss Liège-Bastogne-Liège for two years in a row now,” he said, referring to Pogačar’s fall early on during in the race in 2023 and Evenepoel’s absence this season.
“In Lombardy last year I crashed and I couldn’t compete at the end. The Tour is a different story.”
Evenepoel made his debut in that race this year and had a superb showing. He won the stage 7 time trial, finished third overall, and captured the best young rider award.
And while Pogačar was on a different level, the Belgian did enough to show he has a big future in the race.
Now they will cross swords again in the world championships, where Evenepoel will give his all to win.
“It’s another step and a new opportunity to measure myself,” he said, speaking to Sporza. “Tadej looks very good. It won’t be easy, but I can be confident that I can handle it and that I can make it a good race.”
‘He’s the man to beat’
The two were separated by over nine minutes by the end of the Tour, where Pogačar went on a winning blitz and took six stages.
The Slovenian has far more experienced than his rival, having competed in five editions of the Tour to the Belgian’s one.
That gives him a clear edge but, given all Evenepoel’s single-day successes, does he feel that things will be on a more even level on Sunday?
“It’s hard for me to say,” he answered. “Look at how easily he has won Liège this year and Lombardy in the last three years. That is also unique.
“The world championships are also close to those races. He’s the man to beat, but that’s what I’m here for.”
Originally Evenepoel would have lined out alongside Wout Van Aert in the blue of Belgium. That was always the plan, with the latter showing very strongly in the Vuelta a España with three stage victories.
Van Aert looked poised to win the points classification and potentially the mountains competition too, but he crashed heavily on stage 16 and exited the competition.
He remains sidelined for the moment, something Evenepoel said will make things more difficult on Sunday.
“I’ll miss him very much,” he said.
“Wout is always an added value to our team. It’s easier to start a race with two leaders. We have more or less almost equally strong riders that we can field.
“But it’s always better with Wout than without him.”
‘That’s how great his ambition is’
It’s been a hectic year for Evenepoel. He started racing in early February, winning the Figueira Champions Classic and the Volta ao Algarve, and was second overall behind US rider Matteo Jorgenson in Paris-Nice.
Everything was on a good trajectory but he crashed heavily in the Itzulia Basque Country, suffering fractures, and had to work really hard to be ready for the Tour.
After taking third overall in that event he went on to the Olympic Games in Paris and became the first male rider to ever win both the time trial and the road race in the same year.
According to his wife Oumi Rayane, the intensity of that program took its toll. She and others had to help him stay on track.
“He needed some decompression [time to relax],” she told HLN.be, referring to the period after the Olympic Games. “But actually we only had four days to really think of something else [taking a holiday in Greece – ed.]
“Then that focus had to quickly return to this world championships. Mentally he certainly wanted to do something else, but in the end Remco stayed strong there and he was able to make that click.
“That’s how great his ambition to win is. I can only help him and support him as much as possible so that he can carry out his plan all the time.”
Making it all possible
Following his big time trial victory on Sunday, his third successive year winning a world title, Evenepoel was greeted by Rayane. The duo embraced and celebrated the win.
He was quick to pay tribute to herself and others.
“It started pretty good in the first months of the season, then I had a bit of a low moment with the crash, of course,” he said.
“Then I stepped up again in the Tour, in the Olympics and now again [at the worlds]. Already three seasons in a row I am really performing on a very high level and I am really proud of that.
“For sure all the people around me help me with that, they help me to keep the focus. They help having the focused moments and also the relaxing moments.”
If things work out well on Sunday, he will have that support crew to thank yet again. He’s got more races to follow after the world championships, with a return to Il Lombardia amongst several events on the cards.
Staying focused is a big challenge in a season as long and intense as this one but his ambition, coupled with the help of those around him, combine to make him the rider he is.
If he wins Sunday, the victory will be theirs as well as his.
