While the 2023 Tour de France is now just hours away from starting in the Basque Country, on the far side of the Iberian peninsula World Champion Remco Evenepoel has been having some downtime in the party island of Ibiza.
Evenepoel was recently seen at the open-air disco Ushuaïa on the island, where he met up with a friend from his football days, Arthur Theate.
Theate is now a defender at Rennes, a French football team, but the two played football together in the Belgian U-15 and U-16 national squads.
A fake Twitter account had wrongly announced earlier this week that Evenepoel would be part of the Soudal-QuickStep lineup in the 2023 Tour de France. But in fact, after winning the Belgian Road Championships last Sunday, Evenepoel was due a spell of rest and recreation.
“Letting go of everything and being able to recharge the batteries: it will be good”, Soudal-Quick Step sports director Klaas Lodewyck told Het Laatse Nieuws after the Championships.
Evenepoel’s stay in Ibiza, famous for its exuberant and extensive nightlife, is expected to be nothing more than a flying visit. On Saturday morning he will be the headline name in the first edition of his new cyclo-tourist event, the R.EV Ride, in his hometown of Schepdaal.
Evenepoel is set to race in the Basque Country again this season, but rather than the Tour de France, after a three week training camp at altitude in Italy he is expected to kick off his second half of the season on July 29th at the Clásica San Sebastián, which he won in 2019 and 2022.
After that Evenepoel will take part in the World Road Championships in Glasgow on August 6th to defend his rainbow jersey. His participation in the Vuelta a España which starts August 18th in Barcelona remains unclear.
