November 30, 2022
Here is why the World Champion will likely win his second Grand Tour in 2023
A lot has changed since Remco Evenepoel’s Grand Tour debut in 2021.
It was in that year’s Giro d’Italia when cycling fans were treated to dramatic scenes of the Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl rider ripping out his race radio as he flagged on the tough gravel inclines of stage 11. His teammate, João Almeida, was in a group ahead – despite supposed to be working as a domestique – and was eventually forced to slow down and wait for a seething Evenepoel. The young Belgian lost two minutes that day, then lost 24 minutes in the mountains a few stages later and eventually abandoned the race before stage 18 after being caught up in a crash on a descent in the final 30 km the day before.
Fast forward two years and there can be absolutely no question over Evenepoel’s role as the undisputed GC leader of Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl. How can anyone doubt a man who won the 2022 Vuelta a España at just 22-years-old then two weeks later rode away from the entire professional men’s peloton to win solo at the World Championships by almost two and a half minutes? 2022 was truly the year of Remco.
Image: Getty
Some people loved it, cheered him on, revelled in his success, but some not so much. It’s fair to say that Evenepoel has come under his fair share of criticism in previous years, with some taking his confidence as immodest, his motivation to succeed as arrogant naivety. Regardless of which camp you sit in, though, Evenepoel is likely to be a household name in the cycling world for years to come, and we probably should get used to seeing him on the top step of the podium in the world’s biggest races.
If there’s one group that seems to be very much ‘Team Remco’ it’s the organisers of next year’s Giro d’Italia. It is hard to imagine a route better made to the Quick Step rider’s strengths, almost as if the designers had closed their eyes and dreamt of how good it would feel to have one of the most exciting riders in the world at their race. While race director Mauro Vegni has never explicitly stated that he wants Evenepoel at the Giro next year, there’s a long history in the sport of race organisers trying to attract particular established stars who they believe could produce the most compelling spectacle. Last year, Vegni put a time trial on the Slovenian border – it’s not…