Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe made it a clear ambition of theirs to revamp their cobbled Classics squad for 2026, taking one of Mathieu van der Poel's lieutenants, Gianni Vermeersch, adding the experience of former Belgian national coach Sven Vanthourenhout, and continuing to give leadership to rising talents such as Tim van Dijke and Laurence Pithie.
What they have is strength in numbers, and that can bring great results as it did at Omloop Het Nieuwsblad for second-place Van Dijke, but what they lack is one clear leader and a main star to focus their efforts in the fight against Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Premier Tech) and, from next Sunday at the Tour of Flanders, Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG).
While Remco Evenepoel could be that star, in theory, having expressed an interest in "one day" taking on races such as Milan-San Remo and the Tour of Flanders, he was brought to the team to try and win the Tour de France. So for this year, at least, it's numbers they will have to rely on, but would a focal point like the Olympic Champion be more beneficial?
Even heading into the E3 Saxo Classic, there was no specific rider they were strategising efforts around. It was a case of finding out who had the best legs on the day and adapting from there during the 208km race.
"I mean, we don't have one massive leader on our team. We have a few strong guys who can really play a role, so we have to play a little bit differently," Pithie told Cyclingnews on Friday.
"But it's quite open within the team, and everyone can have a shot. At the end of the day, the legs do the talking. So we go in with an open plan, and I think we use each other really well. We have strength in numbers."
As the racing raged on, Red Bull showed their hand on the Taaienberg with 70km to go, Van Dijke launching an aggressive move which was followed by Van der Poel. They briefly went together as they caught the first chasing group behind the breakaway, but barely 8km later, the Alpecin-Premier Tech rider had left his compatriot behind.
Changing tack, the German team then tried a futile attempt to bridge across with Jan Tratnik going solo, before they eventually contributed to the chase in the final 30km behind Van der Poel and a strong chasing move of four riders – which they missed out on joining due to their earlier efforts – and ended with a top result of eighth through Vermeersch.
"Tim was strong when he went, but then he missed a bit after he made the effort to cross together with Van der Poel," DS Vanthourenhout told Cyclingnews. "Then Van der Poel went really early, so then we were out of the race again, and we had to restart. Then it's not so easy anymore.
"I asked the guys to follow Vermeersch," when he sparked the four-man move that almost caught Van der Poel, "but I think they were all on the limit at that moment.
"It was important to see the good commitment and collaboration with the guys again, but as I said, it's not easy at a really hard one-day WorldTour race. Yes, we missed a really important move, but in the end, it's OK."
At Sunday's In Flanders Fields, they were again active with numbers, making the front split in the peloton with 120km to go, but into the hillzone they were off the pace of Van der Poel, Wout van Aert (Visma-Lease a Bike) and Vermeersch, who surged ahead on the second Kemmelberg rep.
From thereon out, it was about the chase to try and sprint with Jordi Meeus. They achieved their aim by working with the likes of Ineos Grenadiers and Decathlon CMA CGM in the final 35, catching Van der Poel, Van Aert and late attacker Alec Segaert in the final 1200 metres.
But Meeus came unstuck in the sprint after making contact with Christophe Laporte and being unable to sprint after clipping out. Furious, he was left smashing his handlebars and shouting at the Frenchman after finishing as Red Bull's top rider in 36th.
Adding these two races to Opening Weekend, however, it would be unfair to say that they haven't made big improvements from last season – the truth is quite the opposite, they've looked impressive. They are often at the pointy end and have definitely tried to make the race come to them instead of just reacting to the big guns.
Is Evenepoel the missing piece?
It's something team boss Ralph Denk was chasing at the start of the season, alongside his goal of challenging at the Tour de France with star new man Evenepoel and podium finisher from 2025, Florian Lipowitz, and the Classics were the main area of the season where they were lacking, especially on the cobbles.
Opting for a sensible approach and more normal run-in to the Tour, any potential hit out at the Classics away from the Ardennes was ruled out, but could Evenepoel's addition to the squad they have be the answer to really standing up to Van der Poel, Pogačar, Van Aert and Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek).
This boils down slightly to the question of whether surprises are still possible in these biggest races. Pithie thinks it is still possible, saying, "For sure, there's still room for surprises; it's much harder with those big guys like Van der Poel here, but you never know, it's racing; anyone on the start line can win."
While this did almost ring true at E3 just hours after he said it, with only a lack of cooperation and a final seated burst saving Van der Poel from a memorable defeat, the evidence at cycling's most prestigious one-day races does point to a different conclusion.
In the past, at races like Milan-San Remo, Paris-Roubaix and to an extent Flanders, if you look back to Alberto Bettiol in 2019, the potential surprises remained. However, the current era has seen all of the last 10, and 15 of the last 17, Monuments taken by just Pogačar and Van der Poel. It does point to the absolute best riders being within a shout of winning, with only Evenepoel and another Alpecin rider, Jasper Philipsen, being the exceptions from the run of 17, which dates back to Lombardy 2022.
Granted, Evenepoel has won a Grand Tour at the Vuelta back in 2022, was the frontrunner for the Giro in 2023 before COVID-19 forced him out of the race, and did finish third on his Tour de France debut, so the focus on stage racing has made sense, both at his old team and new.
But his best results have been in the one-day arena as a two-time winner of Liège-Bastogne-Liège, a three-time winner at the Clásica San Sebastián, and with a victory at Brabantse Pijl to his name, alongside both Olympic and World Championships road race victories on his palmarès. And it's not just his former boss, Patrick Lefevere, who has been saying that maybe Evenepoel's best specialism could be as a one-day racer; Vanthrouenhout, too, notes how his results show that.
"Remco [is] a better one-day racer than a Grand Tour rider; there is no debate about that," he told Het Laatste Nieuws at Paris-Nice. "His palmarès say so too. And there are still many one-day races he can/will win."
Red Bull opt for 'back to basics' approach in 2026
While a surprise debut for next Sunday's Ronde has been ruled out categorically for Evenepoel in 2026, it has already been in Red Bull's mind that he will be taking on the biggest race in his home nation, be that in 2027 or later years.
"We just really wanted to go back to basics. He's on the same page as us about that, and I can definitely say that one day Remco will do Flanders for us, but for this year, we're going to build him up as we planned," said Chief of Sports Zak Dempster to Cyclingnews back in February.
"I know you keep pushing, and that many people would love to see me at the start. But it’s not for this year. My schedule isn’t being adjusted," said Evenepoel to HLN after his latest race at the Volta a Catalunya.
"I will spend Monday and Tuesday at home in Belgium, with family and friends, for whom it has been a while since I made time for this, following that altitude training camp on Mount Teide and the Tour of Catalonia.
"After that, I’ll head back to Spain to prepare for my beloved Ardennes classics. I think there is more to gain for me there than in Flanders."
While a win at the Ardennes is certainly possible at Amstel Gold Race and potentially Liège-Bastogne-Liège against Pogačar, Evenepoel wanting to one day take on the likes of Flanders and San Remo will require him to get some experience racing there, which 2026 could have provided.
Yes, there is the heightened risk of crashing at those particularly stressful races, but that's not to say there isn't massive potential danger at Liège, or any race for that matter, shown best by a crash while leading a two-man break with Jonas Vingegaard in Catalunya likely taking away the few percentage points he needed to challenge the Dane fully on GC.
And the longer he waits to make his debut at those races, the longer he must wait to gain the necessary race experience, which even Pogačar needed before winning Flanders and San Remo. It took him five almost all-out attempts at the latter to finally win it in dramatic fashion early this month, and his first attempt at Flanders included missing the crucial split at Dwars door Vlaanderen in the run-in and getting outplayed by Van der Poel in a two-up sprint to eventually finish fourth at his first Ronde.
It's understandable for Red Bull to protect their Tour de France-focussed investment, of course, but for me, Evenepoel would have benefitted from taking on a first hit out in what are his most prestigious home races.
As Denk noted to the Flemish press, he is only 26, so he has more than enough time to race at the likes of Flanders eventually, but cutting his teeth later rather than sooner could see that time to really take on De Ronde run out quicker than the German team expects, and his explosivity with it.
With him, Red Bull's already rapidly improving cobbled Classics core, which does feature both the vast experience of Vermeersch and Jan Tratnik and the rising talents of the Van Dijke brothers and Pithie, would have a main leader to focus on, as do UAE and Alpecin.
According to teammates, this clarity does aid them in doing their job, knowing that with the nature of races being blown up earlier and earlier by the big names, getting your leader to the front so they don't miss the key moments is priority number one.
"It makes it super easy for us when Tadej is back, we just need to keep him safe and keep him in a good position, then normally he can finish off the job in the end," said UAE domestique Mikkel Bjerg to Cyclingnews in the lead to Flanders last season.
With Flanders and Roubaix looming large in the next two weeks, Red Bull look set to be one of the big players as a team, but whether they can challenge the top dogs when it comes to actually winning them is a different question. Evenepoel will surely be watching his home and perhaps thinking that while his climbing has been lacking in his past two races, his explosivity most certainly has not.
No Belgian man has won the Tour of Flanders since Philippe Gilbert in 2017, with the main home hope, Van Aert, being hit by a mix of bad luck and not enough strength in the face of long-term rival Van der Poel and defending champ Pogačar ever since. That could well change this weekend with the way Van Aert is looking, but maybe it will be a wait for Belgium that extends until Evenepoel finally makes De Ronde one of his key objectives.
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