"Mathieu is always dangerous" - Remco Evenepoel confident in Belgian team but aware of van der Poel's danger

Remco Evenepoel comes into the Olympic Games' road race and could not come in any better mindset. The Belgian has just come off a third place and stage win in his debut Tour de France and right away made the trip to Paris where he won the time-trial event. There is no pressure whatsoever for him to win again, but he can certainly pull it off this Saturday in the road race although he clearly eyes World Champion Mathieu van der Poel as the key man in the race.

“No idea, I’ve never ridden a race with such a small team before. I think we can count ourselves lucky that we are one of the few countries that are allowed to start with four riders. That is an advantage. It will be important to race well together," Evenepoel said in an interview with Wielerflits. "Tiesj [Benoot] and Jasper [Stuyven] are with the team to keep control and to use their experience and racing insight. I think they are the perfect men to keep everything under control as ‘road captains’.”

The Belgian team is widely considered to be the best on the road; being one of the few with four riders and all of them can realistically take the win. With 90 riders in a hilly 274-kilometer race, it's highly unlikely that there will be many teams trying to control the breakaway all day long but instead to use their riders to attack early on and try to take advantage of the chaos.

Evenepoel has already explored the course and the cobbled climb to Montmartre where the race-winning moves may come in the final cricuit. “It is in any case the most difficult climb of the local circuit, but also the narrowest. Everyone knows that this can be a place where you can make the difference. Positioning will be important on Montmartre. In addition, it is still a cobblestone extension. I am not going to say that you can compare this climb with the Oude Kwaremont, but it is a bit like it," he says.

But he is aware that a winning move can come anywhere, in and out of the final circuit in Paris. "On the local circuit, the decision can be forced anywhere. At the World Championships two years ago in Wollongong, I also didn't get away at the point that everyone thought it had to happen. It's only a small peloton, so it can happen anywhere". This could be very beneficial for the Belgian, who is an expert on solo attacks.

Evenepoel details how he has recovered since the victory in the time-trial over Filippo Ganna: “On Sunday I rode for an hour. On Monday I rode for two hours. On Tuesday I rode for two and a half hours. On Wednesday I had a long training session on the loop outside Paris. And on Thursday I explored the city course. And this Friday we still have to cycle for a while. For the rest I mainly spent a lot of time in bed and resting.... I still feel very good at the moment. After the time trial last weekend, it was difficult to find the right rhythm in the first hour of a training session on the bike. I had to get back into it, but after that my legs felt good again. I also sleep and recover well. That will also be important in this competition.”

He talks about his experience in the Olympic village (the Belgian team moved there after the time-trial): “It is certainly special. The first day you arrive it is even a bit overwhelming. It gives you a feeling that you almost forget that you are still here with a competition goal. That is because you meet everyone and show interest in all those other sports yourself. For example, I went to watch hockey on Thursday evening. Have I spotted any famous athletes myself? At breakfast I saw Andre De Grasse. But no, I didn't ask him for an autograph…”

The 24-year old was asked about Belgium's main rivals for this Saturday's race and as expected, the first response was the World Champion who won in a similar course in Glasgow last year. “Mathieu [van der Poel] is always dangerous. Tom Pidcock is also in good shape, we saw that on Monday in the mountain bike race," Evenepoel added. "It is a course that many riders can handle well. But I think the other competitors say the same about us. We have to focus on ourselves and certainly not adjust the race to one other competitor. But Mathieu is one of the five top favorites.”