Remco Evenepoel‘s highly anticipated 2026 season debut with Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe arrives on Thursday at the Trofeo Ses Salines in Mallorca, but he’s also added two more races for his time on the Balearic island.
His road to the Tour de France begins with a team time trial in Ses Salines, a crucial test for the Tour’s first stage in Barcelona, where he’ll partner up with his co-leader for July for the first time, Florian Lipowitz.
“Starting the season with a TTT is something special. In a road race, you usually have a few hours to ease into it before the finale. Here, it’s straight into it: around 25 minutes of full gas and pain in the legs,” he said on the team’s website.
“Thursday is an important day, but not the most important one of the season. It’s no secret that we’re here to prepare for the Tour de France. If we can draw the right conclusions for July, it’s okay to make mistakes now. At this stage, it doesn’t have to be perfect.”
Making the most of his trip, he revealed in an interview with Daniel Benson’s Substack on Wednesday that he would also take on Friday’s Trofeo Serra Tramuntana and Saturday’s Trofeo Andratx-Pollença, enticed by the latter’s key climb, the Coll de Puig Major (14.2 at 5.9%).
“The schedule is to do the TTT, and then I’ll add Friday and Saturday. That wasn’t the plan, but the weather seems to be okay, and while I’m here, it’s better to race a little bit instead of coming here for just 25 minutes of racing, so I’ll add two more days of racing,” he told Daniel Benson, with the 154km and 148km days offering a perfect chance to test his early season shape.
“That’s the goal. I’m the type of rider who gets better from racing, so that’s actually the goal here. The parcours here should suit me, and it’s a good up and down terrain that’s always a bit punchy.
“On Saturday, we have the Puig Major as well, and that’s a long climb. I can find a bit of everything and some answers on how my winter went.”
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