Remco Evenepoel might not reclaim the Vélo d’Or award he earned two years ago when the ceremony reflecting on the 2024 season takes place next month, on December 6; such was the historic form Tadej Pogačar enjoyed that it would take a seriously eccentric decision from the voters to choose anyone other than the Slovenian. However, one award Evenepoel has retained from 2022 is the Flandrian of the Year, the prestigious prize handed out by the newspaper Het Nieuwsblad each year to one rider from the always-competitive field of Belgian riders.
That award was announced by Het Nieuwsblad on Tuesday at a ceremony in Middelkerke and testifies to just how good a 2024 season he had. The first of his nine wins from the season came on his very first day of racing at the Figueira Champions Classic, after which he honed his stage racing form with overall victory at Volta ao Algarve and second overall at Paris-Nice, where a final day stage win was not quite enough to take overall victory from Matteo Jorgenson (Visma-Lease a Bike).
Disaster seemed to strike during his next racing appearance at Itzulia Basque Country, where he was one of the many big names to fall and hurt himself badly in the season-shaping crash on stage four. But he was back racing again at Critérium du Dauphiné two months later, where he built enough form to peak in time for the Tour de France, claiming a very impressive third place overall behind Pogačar and Jonas Vingegaard, plus a stage win at the opening week time trial.
Then came the Olympics. This was arguably the finest week of Evenepoel’s career to date, as he followed time trial gold with another in the road race, becoming the first man in history to win both at the same Olympic Games. More success was to come representing Belgium in the autumn, where he retained his time trial title at the World Championships, while he ended the season still in great shape, finishing runner-up at Il Lombardia behind only an unstoppable Pogačar.
With his palmarès so widely expanded and so many big achievements managed, what’s next for Evenepoel in 2025? The Belgian used his post-award interview with Het Nieuwsblad to outline some of his plans. Another crack at the Tour de France following this year’s successful debut is a certainty, while he described Liège–Bastogne–Liège, a race he has already won twice, as a race he would “never skip”. Meanwhile, the cobbled Monuments of Paris-Roubaix and the Tour of Flanders…