Belgian national coach "begs" Remco Evenepoel to participate at 2025 European Championships
Cycling
The 2025 season is far from even starting for Remco Evenepoel. The Soudal - Quick-Step superstar is still recovering from the accident when he collided with postal van during a training in December. His return is scheduled for mid-April at the moment.
Evenepoel faces a key year for the development of his career. His main goal will be to return to the Tour de France. This time, he will be looking to fight for the overall victory, not just the podium like last year, when Tadej Pogacar (and even Jonas Vingegaard) were out of his reach in the mountains. He'll once again rely on the stellar Mikel Landa along with renewed support team. But there are more goals in the season for the double Olympic champion.
And the Belgian national coach Serge Pauwels hopes that the European Championships could be one of them. That's why Pauwels trying to get on the good side of Evenepoel who already has a full set of medals from the continental championship, having won the time trial in 2019. Two years later, he returned to finish third against the clock while he finished runner-up in the 2021 road race, losing a sprint to Sonny Colbrelli.
Pauwels confirmed the intention of bringing Evenepoel if possible to Het Nieuwsblad: "No decision has been made yet, but it's certainly an option," Pauwels says. "Remco is someone who likes special jerseys. He has never been European champion (in road race), so it could be interesting for him. But also someone like Maxim Van Gils can certainly play an important role on that course," adds the Belgian national coach.
The rainbow jersey is indeed in mind
In the statements, Serge Pauwels also talks about Remco Evenepoel's motivation to compete for the rainbow jersey in the first World Championships edition on African soil in history. Rwanda will present riders with a brutal course that includes approximately 5500 meters of climbing. In this case, Pauwels won't need to pull any stunts to convince his biggest star to book a ticket to Kigali.
"I already spoke to Remco on the phone in December. As a coach, I have to find the right balance: keep in touch, without being intrusive. Remco seemed very motivated for Kigali. It's no coincidence that he's already been vaccinated," Pauwels jokes.
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- Based on desires and current rate of improvement he is likely to reach MJ level before the likes of (for starters) TP, JV & RE and even PR retire. It was not an exclusive list and I don’t claim to or want to know every discussable rider’s age unless it becomes necessary :-)Mistermaumau18-03-2025
- Z2, seriously? Even if there are no attacks, punctures, mechanicals etc. likely to be at 45km/h for 8h. So basically to win you just have to prepare for a whole day in Z3, right?Mistermaumau18-03-2025
- it is great that JA worked so well for Storer in the Paris-Nice race, but really, he is paid to win. to me it is odd that Storer didn't work for Alaphilippe for the win. I know it is an early season race, but but we see Mads winning, Jonas, Tadej, Mathieu, etc. Time to win is now.mij18-03-2025
- That is true, but I am speculating that he doesn't want to disrupt the training so that he can peak for the other 2 monuments.
KerisVroom18-03-2025 - Outside of Pogi and Vingo.. Jorgenson is the best GC rider along with Roglic, Remco, Ayuso, Bernal and Almeida to win GT.
James2631818-03-2025 - That's exactly why he can win it even without being at his best. It's basically a Z2 followed by 2 all out effortsvappaxbipmv18-03-2025
- Why are you putting Tom on that list of GT champions? Even stage race are not yet on his palmares 😅 He is good rider but Jorgenson is more capable of winning than Pidcock.James2631818-03-2025
- I’d say without resolving the back problems you have no chance of resolving his state of mind. Now, back problems in young cyclists is probably going to become an issue like e.g. concussion in rugby & football. As we try to catch and form them for high performance younger and younger, we’re kind of obliging them to hone their TT skills earlier and earlier, certainly still during growth phases. Those hours in those positions are likely to have complex effects in some.Mistermaumau18-03-2025
- So no 80km solo then?Mistermaumau18-03-2025
- Yeah, yeah. Ignore the race on the day totally and stick to a plan you make public well in advance and hope your rivals fall for it. Could even have worked, if there’d not been a very similar report last year. And how many (anonymous and not) reports do you think reporters could find and choose from anyway?Mistermaumau18-03-2025