"I can only promise one thing: I'll be back" - Defiant Remco Evenepoel sends message ahead of 2025 season
Cycling
Remco Evenepoel is set to continue on in 2025 as Soudal - Quick-Step's leading light. After a horror crash during a training ride in early December though, the double Olympic champion was a notable absentee from the team's official presentation ahead of the 2025 season.
Evenepoel disastrously crashed into the opening door of a BPost van whilst riding in his homeland of Belgium in early December, being left with numerous injuries including broken bones and a dislocated collarbone that required surgery. The Belgian still isn't yet back on the bike, but via a video call, Evenepoel sent a message of defiance to teammates and rivals alike at Soudal - Quick-Step's team presentation.
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"It's been a very tough period for me, with no training and not doing anything," Evenepoel admitted honestly. "We've been on a holiday for a last moment of relaxation so I can recover for hopefully the start of rehab. But I'm patient and will wait so I'm 100% ready to go out on the bike. I can only promise one thing: I'll be back. I'll focus on my big goals and not the side goals. I just want to be 100% ready for the Tour de France."
Speaking of the Tour de France, Evenepoel was confirming to be sharing joint leadership of the Soudal - Quick-Step team in the French Grand Tour this summer at the team presentation, with sprint star Tim Merlier also being backed by the Wolfpack in his quest for stage victories and potentially the first Yellow Jersey of the race.
Overall the team head to 2025 full of optimism after a winter of change, both amongst the staff and riders. "Building a team for the future is also about making hard choices and it was difficult to let Julian Alaphillipe and Kasper Asgreen go. We selected our new riders carefully adding young talent and experienced riders. I think we can bring Ethan Hayter to his best level ever," Patrick Lefevere's replacement Jurgen Fore commmented.
Remco is here ➡️ https://t.co/sMJPla6Z77 pic.twitter.com/PFHuVVGAlX
— Soudal Quick-Step Pro Cycling Team (@soudalquickstep) January 9, 2025
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- She is the strongest and the strongest don't need no tactics. As soon as the road rises, she comes to the front and drops everybodyabstractengineer10-01-2025
- I feel like he is past his peakabstractengineer10-01-2025
- Its the curse of a French rider on a french teamabstractengineer10-01-2025
- This guy is making a very stupid decision. His agent should have brought him superior offers. He is going to play 2nd fiddle to Remco and then wonder why he isn't at the TDF or missing all GTs in a season.abstractengineer10-01-2025
- Hirschi and Alaphilippe on Cancellara's team, honestly sounds like a great choice if they manage to play the game the way Van der Poel did, a few years ago. They know where they need to be at the end of next year, in terms of points, so now it's just a question of being there. I'm not sure Alaphilippe will play the role he dreams of, and his jerky movements on the bike continue to annoy me, but I truly wish him and the team the best of luck in reaching their goal. It makes for better racing when teams like Tudor (he still refers to it as a "project," love that) are fighting to get into the World Tour.RidesHills09-01-2025
- Nice to see him with a sense of humor about the wins. That's actually a really good sign of how he's feeling, most of the time.RidesHills09-01-2025
- He’s good at messing up his WCs ;-)Mistermaumau09-01-2025
- so, tom could dedicate himself to CX all year, every year and probably never beat mathieu in a cyclocross world championship, barring a crash or injury or whatever. does pidcock have that kind of advantage over van der poel in XCO, or is that a gap mvdp can close even at this latter stage of mathieu’s career?OCexile09-01-2025
- Yes, I also think teams should start re-evaluating their TdF commitments according to rider goals. As long as a rider doesn’t have any realistic chance of sone form of glory, don’t force them just to end up with a forgettable result, give someone else on the team the experience and chance to prove themselves and let your better rider focus on goals they CAN aim for. You really get the feeling some riders are being forced to pretend they can achieve something when they know they haven’t got a hope.Mistermaumau09-01-2025
- It’s very difficult to say now since he’s hardly ever raced over the last 5-6 years. Had he continued when he was good at it he’d most definitely have won it at some point, the type of course playing a decisive role. But business dictated he should focus more on road racing. Much as he tries, you can’t be everywhere at once and win it all and there are only so many years to a career.Mistermaumau09-01-2025