Illness strikes in Belgian World Championship camp; Remco Evenepoel loses key teammate ahead of Rainbow Jersey battle in Kigali
Cycling
Belgium’s seemingly dream week at the UCI Road World Championships in Kigali has been dealt an untimely blow. Just a day after Remco Evenepoel stormed to a third consecutive world title in the individual time trial, the team has confirmed that veteran Tiesj Benoot will miss the road race through illness.
The news comes as a setback for a Belgian squad that had been riding a wave of optimism. Evenepoel’s destruction of the time trial field on Sunday – a performance capped by the surreal sight of him catching four-time Tour de France winner Tadej Pogacar on the road – reaffirmed his status as one of the men to beat in Rwanda. Ilan Van Wilder’s bronze medal further underlined the depth of Belgian talent, while the morale within Serge Pauwels’ camp appeared sky high.
The loss of a trusted road captain
Benoot’s withdrawal, however, leaves a gap in the Belgian strategy for the upcoming road race. The 31-year-old from Team Visma | Lease a Bike was the squad’s most experienced rider, having first competed at the Worlds a decade ago in Richmond and featuring in six editions since. Last summer he also played a pivotal support role for Evenepoel in the Olympic road race, where Belgium came away with gold.
In recent weeks his form had suggested he was sharpening up well for Kigali, finishing 16th in the GP Québec, seventh in the GP Montréal and animating the Super 8 Classic at the weekend. His absence strips Belgium of a seasoned engine capable of both riding selflessly and reading the rhythm of long championship races.
Evenepoel already has one Rainbow Jersey win in Kigali
Vervaeke steps in
Replacing him is Louis Vervaeke, who arrives with credit after a strong Vuelta a Espana and carries the reputation of being one of Evenepoel’s most trusted lieutenants. He joins a line-up that also includes Xandro Meurisse, Quinten Hermans, Cian Uijtdebroeks, Van Wilder, Victor Campenaerts and Florian Vermeersch.
On paper, Belgium still commands one of the strongest squads in Kigali. Yet in a World Championships where tactical nuance often proves decisive, losing Benoot’s road craft and composure is no minor detail. For Evenepoel, the absence of his Olympic teammate makes the quest for the rainbow jersey a shade more complicated – even if his time trial demolition suggests he arrives in Rwanda with the form to shoulder the pressure alone.
Kieran WoodDeputy Editor-in-Chief
Kieran Wood is a sports journalist based in Wales and has been active in journalism since 2022. He regularly contributes to DartsNews.com and CyclingUpToDate.com, where he covers professional cycling and darts. In cycling, his work includes liveblogs from major races, including the Tour de France, the Giro d’Italia, and La Vuelta a España, alongside race reports and analysis. He has also conducted interviews with professional riders.
His reporting spans the full racing calendar, from one-day classics to stage races, with a focus on accurate, real-time coverage and clear contextual analysis. For statistics, results, and historical context, he regularly uses resources such as ProCyclingStats. To support reporting on rider activity and training context where relevant, he also references Strava.
In his work, Kieran places strong emphasis on careful sourcing, editorial accuracy, and updating articles as new, verified information becomes available.
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- Just looked again at the photo. Yeah I stand by that. If MS had fallen over in Brands direction I don’t even think she would have hit her. You must be a UCI race commissioner. I’ll be sure to check my sock height should I ever see you on a ride. Looks like everyone else on here sees what I see.mij08-11-2026
- I said looking at the photo it doesn’t appear she deviated. Chill out, not stating my word is the final judgement. Just commenting that based on the photo I don’t see it. And BTW the Dutch coach even said she didn’t impede her.mij08-11-2026
- Blah Blah Blah !frieders308-11-2026
- MS said she was changing gears so that caused her slight deviation. Nothing was intentional.frieders308-11-2026
- How can you use a photo post incident to judge the incident itself (which is not hard to find if you’re prepared to invest the same amount of time in searching as writing that comment? It’s harsh but technically right even though this or worse is not always sanctioned in every race. The two things that went against MS (who unfortunately for her would still have won without making her mistake) are that it was not a bunch sprint where there could have been an overlooked incident or mitigating circumstances explaining a deviation. Everything was focused on just those 2, Schreiber was riding beautifully balanced which made her sudden deviation look unnatural stroke as if it could have been in some part intentional whilst she was slowly drifting ever closer towards the barrier to a point that would have reached obstruction level. In her defence, it might have been the realisation she was heading towards that that made her react suddenly and caused the deviation involuntarily. In any case, congratulations to her for the ride of her life, in people’s minds she will be credited for it.Jumpyjohn07-11-2026
- Good boy Obviously doesn’t need that much help dealing with pressure, as some have suggested. Wiser (and humbler) than many far further along their careers. About offering him the moon, recently someone came up with an explanation of the downfall of a football great (either referring to Maradona or Portuguese Ronaldo) saying it was kind of normal after coming back from the moon, except that others, including some who actually did go to the moon like Armstrong (Neil in case anyone is too switched off to realise) didn’t go through any of the same motions after coming back. A lot of how you deal with situations has less to do with the situation than with your character.Jumpyjohn07-11-2026
- I think that they're not really used to dealing with this type of incident in a cyclocross race, and the situation has been magnified because it was a race for a championship title. It's very unfortunate that the race had to be decided in this way.
santiagobenites07-11-2026 - Seriously why do they keep doing stupid things like this. Its one thing to relegate when the placings are minor, when the action is blatant. But when it is ambiguous, why dont they at least take advice from some higher up to avoid embarrassing themselves. This is similar to the Halland goal when his teammate was clearly offside and interfered in play and VAR gave them the goal. if you dont have evidence you cannot convict. Even for doping they have these rulesabstractengineer07-11-2026
- So all those who went to watch, including all from abroad, waled there, spent nothing? Most places hosting events of the sort manage to make it worthwhile. If it was so obviously fruitless, don’t you think by now they’d have run out of hosting candidates? Why do you think the Tour can command such high prices for departure and arrival locations? If it didn’t bring anything locally they’d have to pay to get authorisation to use cities.Jumpyjohn07-11-2026
- What a travesty ! That little deviation did nothing to impede Brand !frieders307-11-2026
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