It has been three years since Remco Evenpoel's first experience of gravel racing at a Grand Tour – stage 11 at the Giro d'Italia, where he struggled on the Tuscan sterrato, losing two minutes to eventual race winner Egan Bernal in Montalcino.
The news that this year's Tour de France – his first – would also include gravel roads in the parcours was, when the race route was announced back in October, met with a negative reaction from the Belgian as he said, "I don't think it's necessary."
