Remco Evenepoel's change from Soudal-Quickstep to Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe has resulted in the most successful start to a season of his career, with three wins during the Mallorca Challenge and two stage victories and the overall at the Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana.
The 26-year-old now has six wins to his 2026 tally in just eight days of racing, but he counts only five.
"I don't count a team time trial as an individual victory. Otherwise, I'd have 75 or so victories now, instead of 72," Evenepoel said to VTM Nieuws. "So let's say this is my fifth of the year. But it's a great start, of course. I'm going to try to keep this up. Now I just need to recover a bit, and then the UAE Tour will come pretty soon."
Evenepoel was able to sail through the 94.7-kilometre final stage on Sunday thanks to the presence of teammate Emil Herzog in the daylong breakaway.
When the last of the escapees weren't caught before the line, Herzog finished second in the sprint and Evenepoel and teammate Giulio Pellizzari came through just two seconds later in the chase group, with Evenepoel sealing the overall and Pellizzari finishing third.
"It's great to win my first stage race for my new team," Evenepoel said. "It was already pretty clear along the way that the race was going to be pretty calm. I never got into trouble. I think we always had the situation under control. We finished well. It was a bit hectic at the end with the slippery asphalt and the many corners, but in the end we finished safely. That's the most important thing.
By comparison, Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) will not even start his season for another month at Strade Bianche, and Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) suffered a crash and illness over the last few weeks and had to scuttle plans to compete in the UAE Tour next week. Evenepoel has definitely started the year with the upper hand on his Tour de France rivals even if it's still early days.
"What we've worked on a lot is already paying off. Am I worried I'm in shape too early? No, I think that, if I'm a decent winter athlete, I'm always in pretty good shape in the first few weeks," Evenepoel said. "I haven't had any altitude camps yet. I think we'll gradually work towards the lightest weight. That means there's still some room for improvement."
After his success, it would be understandable if Evenepoel or his team chose to continue the momentum and add more races to his calendar, but that isn't currently the case. "No, we're going to stick to the plan. First the UAE Tour, then a long altitude training camp, and then Catalunya. After that, the Ardennes, my favourite classics, are coming.
"We're not going to get overconfident and keep taking it one step at a time. It's great that we've already managed to secure this. Now it's time to look ahead and try to win as much as possible."
