"It had been in the back of his mind before, but that moment really triggered it": Red Bull BORA director explains Evenepoel's decision to ride the Tour of Flanders

When a Grand Tour specialist drops into the middle of the cobbled classics, things don't usually go this perfectly. But Remco Evenepoel showed he can easily handle the chaos of one-day racing by grabbing a podium spot at the Tour of Flanders. Now, the management at Red Bull - BORA - hansgrohe is figuring out what this means for his future calendar.

Evenepoel's appearance on the starting line in the major cobbled races was never part of the team's original plan for the season. Instead, the idea came together very late in the winter. The spark happened when Evenepoel watched his teammates race during the Opening Weekend in Belgium. Seeing the team perform so well made him want to be a part of the action.

"He saw what the team was doing in the Opening Weekend and something clicked,” Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe sports director Sven Vanthourenhout told Wielerflits when asked about the sudden change of plans. “It had been in the back of his mind before, but that moment really triggered it."

Even though Evenepoel is one of the biggest names in the entire sport, the team made sure that his arrival did not ruin the structure they already had in place. Vanthourenhout was very clear that the team would not change their entire strategy just for one rider, no matter how famous he is.

“We didn’t build the team around him,” the sports director insisted. “It was very clear: he had to join the group, not the other way around. The base of the classics team had to remain intact, with or without Remco. And he understood that perfectly. From day one, he behaved like one of the guys, not someone above them.”

However, Vanthourenhout was just as happy with how the rest of the team performed. Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe placed an impressive four riders in the top fifteen that day. “We’re proud,” Vanthourenhout explained. “Not just of the podium with Remco, but of the team as a whole. Four riders in the top fifteen, controlling key moments in the race, staying out of trouble. That’s what we wanted.”

Even with this great result, the sports director does not want to rush into any big decisions about next year. The team has built a good starting point, but they still need to sit down and figure out if Evenepoel will race these exact same events again in the future.

Because Evenepoel did so well in Flanders, many fans and reporters immediately started wondering if he would try to race Paris-Roubaix as well, but Vanthourenhout quickly put an end to those rumors. He made it clear that adding Paris-Roubaix to his schedule was never actually discussed inside the team.

“That was never an option,” he said about the French race. “Not internally. That came from the outside, from the excitement around the race.”

Instead of sending Evenepoel to every single cobbled race, the team wants to use their numbers to fight the biggest stars in the sport. “I think we have to play to our strengths,” Vanthourenhout noted. “If we can get two or three riders into the final, we can achieve something really nice.”

At the end of the day, Evenepoel's success on the cobbles has led to a lot of debates about what kind of rider he truly is. Some people think he should focus only on one-day races, while others want him to win more Grand Tours. According to his sports director, there is no reason to force him into a single category.

“People like to label him,” Vanthourenhout concluded. “But if you look at his palmarès today, he’s already one of the very best in one-day races. At the same time, I still believe he can achieve great things in stage races. He’s an all-round rider. That’s the reality.”