Does Remco Evenepoel choose the Giro d'Italia or not? Bruyneel and Martin on Olympic Champion's ideal path

Remco Evenepoel's calendar selection will be mostly decided after the 1st of December when the Giro d'Italia organizers reveal the route for the 2026 edition. Knowing what the Belgian has said, there is a high incentive to have a long flat time trial and rumours suggest this will indeed be the case, which would certainly lead to a Remco Evenepoel-Jonas Vingegaard battle at the Corsa Rosa. Johan Bruyneel and Spencer Martin weight in on the topic.

"Do they send both Florian Lipowitz and him to the Tour team to double-prong attack against Pogacar, or it seems what Jonas Vingegaard talks about you edge your bets a bit," Martin said in The Move podcast. "Do you do the Giro, or not be as invested in the Tour if we lose the Tour... So if something happens to Pogacar we'll maybe have something left in the tank to win the Tour. But the problem is if everyone starts edging you're going to have a stacked Giro startlist and its not so easy to win the Giro if Remco is there, Jonas Vingegaard is there and Isaac del Toro is there".

At the time being there aren't many riders coming out with their ambitions for the next season yet, mostly with the Grand Tour routes still unknown besides the Tour, but also with the winter training camps still ahead. However from the big GC riders it is possible to plan out a possible map of where they will head. In the case of Evenepoel, it is quite important taking into consideration his move into Red Bull - BORA - hansgrohe where he will share leadership responsibilities with Florian Lipowitz.

Martin wonders if Vingegaard does not actually race the Giro (which is unlikely), if Evenepoel could instead become the man to beat: "If Remco Evenepoel goes to the Giro d'Italia, Jonas Vingegaard is not there, Isaac del Toro is there... Is that a clean path to victory for Remco?"

But that is also not likely to be, taking into consideration his lack of full consistency in Grand Tours and the evolution of other top climbers. "I don't think so Spencer, there's plenty of other riders - who knows maybe Roglic also wants to do the Giro. The coming man is obviously Del Toro..."

"I think as of today, we've been having doubts over Evenepoel and his climbing capacities. Let's not forget he won the Vuelta a España and he was third at the Tour de France behind Tadej Pogacar and Jonas Vingegaard not long ago. I think today if we have to look at all the rivals there's two guys that we can safely say Remco cannot beat: It's Jonas and Tadej".

However, in their absence, the Belgian could potentially succeed, specially if the time trial heavy route would feature Isaac del Toro as his main rival: "Everyone else there's a possibility to beat him, it's not like there's someone dominant on the scene now [...] Normally Del Toro will still improve, definitely not the same time trial specialist as Remco so if it's Remco versus Del Toro there's a chance".