Remco Evenepoel has said that despite taking over a dozen wins in 2023 and bringing his career total of victories to 50 this season, he does not view his year as a full-blown triumph.
On the eve of the awarding of the top Belgian cycling prize, the Kristallen Fiets, which the Soudal-QuickStep rider has already won twice, Evenepoel ran the rule over what has proved to be a rollercoaster season in an extensive interview with organising newspaper Het Laatste Nieuws.
In 2023 Evenepoel has amassed a total of 13 wins to date. These included Liège-Bastogne-Liège, the Clásica San Sebastian, UAE Tour, the Road World Championships Time Trial title, multiple stages in the Giro d’Italia, where he also held the lead, various stages and the mountains title in the Vuelta a España, stage wins in the Tour de Suisse and Volta a Catalunya and last, but not least, the road race in the Belgian National Championships.
However, 2023 will also be remembered for the 23-year-old’s failure to secure a top final result either in the GC of the Giro d’Italia or the Vuelta a España.
“I can’t give myself a 10 out of 10 for my season, not even an 8.5 or a 9,” Evenepoel said.
“I’ve only won major races, but this could have been even better with the COVID-19 that forced me out of the Giro d’Italia, or a slightly better preparation for the Vuelta a España.
“Looked at from that perspective, I can’t consider my season to have been a complete success.”
Evenepoel remains convinced that he could have won the Giro had it not been for his sickness, describing his opening time trial, where he put around 30 seconds into all of his direct GC rivals, as his “best 20 minutes of the year. Sadly, getting sick is also part of racing.”
A victory in the Giro, too, would have seen him not opt to return to defend his 2022 Vuelta title, he said. After admitting that before heading to Spain, he found himself playing catchup, first training too little between the road race and time trial at the Worlds, then training for up to seven or eight hours at altitude in Andorra.
“You do that a month before a Grand Tour, not in the last 10 days,” he said.
Evenepoel also told Het Laatste Nieuws that the ongoing debates and rumours about his possible move to Ineos Grenadiers also played on his mind indirectly.
“It was really extreme for a while and I just wanted to be left alone,” he said. “I felt good in the run-up to the Worlds, but it must have drained some energy.”
As for his…
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