Soudal-QuickStep have announced the team that will flank Remco Evenepoel in his defence of his Vuelta a España title. Louis Vervaeke, Jan Hirt, Pieter Serry and Mattia Cattaneo are retained from the team that accompanied Evenepoel to the Giro d’Italia in May, with James Knox, Casper Pedersen and Andrea Bagioli completing the line-up.
Evenepoel claimed the overall title at last year’s Vuelta and he claimed an early lead at this season’s Giro only to be forced out of the race after stage 9 while wearing the maglia rosa of race leader.
The Vuelta will mark Evenepoel’s first outing in the Belgian road champion’s jersey, which he won in June, as well as his first race in the rainbow skinsuit of world time trial champion. The race gets underway in Barcelona on Saturday with a team time trial.
“It will be quite special to return at La Vuelta with bib number one on my back and the beautiful Belgian Champion jersey on my shoulders, in what will be my first outing since conquering it in late June,” Evenepoel said in a statement released by his team on Monday.
“Spain is one of my favourite countries, I’ve always felt good and had a lot of success there, and hopefully the trend will continue over the next weeks. If you look over the course and the start list, you can see it’s going to be a very tough race, but I had a good preparation and can rely on a strong squad, so I have a lot of confidence and motivation ahead of the many challenges that will come.”
Evenepoel mimicked his 2022 Vuelta build-up by racing the Tour de Suisse this summer ahead of altitude camp and then winning the Clásica San Sebastián. The Belgian will face fierce competition for the maillot rojo this time out, with Tour de France winner Jonas Vingegaard and Giro d’Italia champion Primož Roglič leading a dual-pronged challenge from Jumbo-Visma.
“We have a well-balanced team for this last Grand Tour of the year, comprising strong guys for the climbs, but also riders who can protect Remco on the flat and put him in a good position ahead of the climbs,” said Soudal-QuickStep directeur sportif Klaas Lodewyck.
“We hope to have a good start in Barcelona, then we will continue taking it day by day and see how things pan out, especially as after the first couple of stages we will know more about our form and that of our opponents. We are motivated and looking forward to what we hope will be three strong weeks in Spain.”
