Remco Evenepoel is in an unenviable position when it comes to his ambition to win the Tour de France. In the era of Tadej Pogacar and Jonas Vingegaard, even such talented athlete that the 25-year-old Belgian is, he may only hope to win in the absence of the two. And the vast difference in team strengths doesn't help his odds...
"The past few weeks have also been a bit of a search for the right balance between rest and training. But overall I do feel stronger, yes. Except... I'm not the only one," he laughs in conversation with Het Laatste Nieuws. As the old saying goes: Competition never sleeps. "Everyone is taking a step forward."
In particular the requirements to perform at the highest level have grown massively with the arrival of superhumans Pogacar and Vingegaard. "Three, four years ago you could still ride uphill at 7 w/kg and still be two minutes ahead of the competition. Now you have to pedal that for twenty minutes! And even then you're only halfway there or, certainly with Tadej Pogacar, you're already dangling at a minute. Really crazy."
And for Evenepoel it is simply not quite possible to make those massive leaps in level anymore, even though he's still younger than his rivals. "I'm currently at a kind of ceiling that I find difficult to raise," he admits. "Expressed in watts per kilo, I have indeed not improved since my Vuelta win in 2022 and the phase afterwards, in which I was really at my best and rode with a surplus. Not even in last year's Tour."
What has been talked about extensively is the overall strength of Soudal - Quick-Step, compared to the superteams of UAE Team Emirates - XRG or Visma | Lease a Bike whose domestiques alone could probably give Evenepoel a good run for his money if given the freedom to ride for themselves.
"But I think we do have some rouleurs with us, who can be very important in such a stage. Cattaneo, for example. A Schachmann in shape - preferably the version from Itzulia Basque Country, not the one from the Dauphiné - should also be able to do that. And a strong and well-positioned Van Wilder is always worth his weight in gold."
Evenepoel's team made big steps and even bigger statements about going all in for the Belgian's GC ambitions, but it's yet to be really reflected in their roster, a pill that is becoming increasingly bitter to swallow for the Olympic Champion who cannot expect any star recruits in the climbing resort for 2026 either.
"It's difficult for me to go into this in depth, but... a bit of a shame, yes," sighs Evenepoel, about the silence on the transfer market. The only notable signings on that end was Mikel Landa in 2024 and Valentin Paret-Peintre ahead of this season. "Landa did sign," he nods. "But Mikel will not be racing until he is sixty either."
Could there be possibilties to recruit riders like Kevin Vauquelin and Cristián Rodríguez from the struggling Arkéa - B&B Hotels? "They aren't the very best climbers, but they are indeed guys who consistently finish in the top fifteen in their races, and on a good day even in the top ten. If these guys stay injury-free, they can make progress and blossom with us."
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Ondrej ZhasilCycling Journalist
Ondřej Zhasil is a cycling journalist at CyclingUpToDate and has been part of the team since 2023. He is based in Ostrava, the third-largest city in the Czech Republic, and covers professional cycling across the main UCI competitions, including the Tour de France, the Giro d’Italia, and La Vuelta a España. A key focus of his work is startlist analysis and pre-race coverage, where he examines team selections, rider line-ups, and tactical scenarios ahead of major events.
Alongside WorldTour coverage, Ondřej has developed specific expertise in junior cycling and in racing across East Asia, including competitions in China and Japan. He also maintains a broad working knowledge of other disciplines and levels, including cyclocross, while continuing to expand his understanding of mountain bike racing.
Ondřej holds a bachelor’s degree in Mathematics and Physics, which supports his analytical, data-driven approach to performance and race analysis. In his reporting, he regularly uses ProCyclingStats for results, statistics, and historical context. He places strong emphasis on careful sourcing, editorial accuracy, and updating articles promptly when 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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