Even seven months away from his big target for 2026, Remco Evenepoel is growing in confidence for the Tour de France, expressing that 'Yes', he can indeed win it ahead of Tadej Pogačar following his move to Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe.
According to Sporza, Evenepoel was slightly reluctant about his statement of intent, but backed it up by explaining the path he needs to follow to arrive at the Tour's start on July 4 in Barcelona, having had his preparations interrupted by crashes and injuries the past two seasons.
"If everything continues to go well and if I can have a really good winter, good training camps and the points I'm looking for in the races in the spring," Evenepoel told Flemish sports broadcaster Sporza.
"If I can show in Catalonia that I am there to win, like I was in 2023, for example, heading into the Giro, then I definitely think I will be able to reach that level.
"Also, with the support I have here, the support and the teammates who are here, all the scientific aspects involved, I think there's still a lot of room for improvement."
Knowing full well that Pogačar, and indeed Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike), are the two main rivals he will have to beat – having finished third behind them on the podium of his debut Tour in 2024 – Evenepoel is looking to improve at the highest intensities.
"Your foundation needs to be there before you can work on those high-intensity workouts, the real VO2 max workouts. That's where I can improve the most," said Evenepoel.
"It also makes sense: if Tadej attacks, I can keep up for a while, but not for too long. That's what I have to work on now. Of course, that's easy to say, but I have learned to enjoy training more again."
"It took a long time to do that because I was too far behind, but now I can train hard again, and that's what you need to be able to push yourself beyond your limits."
A major crash at Itzulia Basque Country in 2024 and a December training crash last season are what have derailed the perfect approach for the Olympic champion. On both occasions, he had to rebuild from several broken bones back up to form, instead of being able to work on fine-tuning the marginal gains that could see him close the gap.
"I want to be better than him – [Pogačar]. That's very difficult; we all know that. But that's why I came here. To take those steps. To go for it, on it and over it," he added.
"That will take a lot of effort, but I'm very motivated, and I really needed this new step to completely break through a ceiling. I hope to be able to boom this year."
Come July, and he won't have leadership all to himself as he did at Soudal-QuickStep, with rising German star and third-place finisher from the most recent Tour, Florian Lipowitz, also heading to cycling's biggest race in pursuit of the yellow jersey.
Team chief of sports Zak Dempster said it was a 'no-brainer' to have the pair compete alongside each other, and Evenepoel has had his say on how they might combine their contrasting styles of riding.
"If we go with a plan, we just have to think about the benefits. Florian and I are both very ambitious, but we're two different riders," explained Evenepoel.
"I'm more explosive; Florian has to get going like a diesel. We're polar opposites, and together that can only work out well. We need to complement each other and not work against each other to achieve the goal of this team: to win the Tour one day."
