“He’s always spectacular no matter what" - Jens Voigt backing Remco Evenepoel to light up next year's Tour de France

In 2024 it is expected that Remco Evenepoel will be making his Tour de France debut. With a Vuelta a Espana win, a World Championships title and a pair of Liege-Bastogne-Liege victories already on the palmares of the 23-year-old, can he challenge for the Maillot Jaune?

“He provided highlights and spectacles – he doesn't do average,” says Eurosport expert Jens Voigt, a former two-time Tour de France stage winner in his own right, on Evenepoel's rollercoaster of a Vuelta a Espana that saw the Belgian collapse out of GC contention but rebound in style with three stage wins and the King of the Mountains jersey.

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“He’s always spectacular no matter what, and I was pleasantly surprised by his comeback, the way he pulled himself out of the swamp by his own hair," continues Voigt. “I think he has made a huge step in his personal development and I think now he's really ready to attack at the Tour de France.”

With the dual of Tadej Pogacar and Jonas Vingegaard having decided the last three Tour de France titles, the addition of Evenepoel sees an interesting new dynamic added to the fold. “Let's just look at the facts: he is 23 years old and has completed four major tours in his career so far," says Voigt. "He won once, failed twice, collapsed once, but then spectacularly won three stages. Reliability still seems to be lacking – maybe it's because he played another sport for too long and didn't learn it from scratch. He seems to have difficulty digesting when things aren't going well, i.e. in a single stage. He loses almost 30 minutes and immediately goes into the leading group the next day. If he was physically bad, it wouldn't work.”

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