"Primoz Roglic better start thinking about doing the Tour de France" - Chris Horner argues Red Bull - BORA have to change plans have Remco Evenepoel fall-out at UAE Tour

There is a multitude of opinions on Remco Evenepoel's season so far. Whilst Tadej Pogacar and Jonas Vingegaard have kept their powder dry and will only start their season in March; the Red Bull - BORA - hansgrohe already has 15 race days under the belt, including several wins and defeats. Chris Horner, the former American Grand Tour winner, argues that the Belgian rider is in a difficult position following his lack of climbing legs at the UAE Tour.

"If I back you up into the [20]25 season, Remco Evenepoel had blown up multiple times throughout the 25 season spectacularly [...] And you'll hear some of the commentators that I saw on YouTube talking about how he's blowing up and he went too hard at six kilometers when he's following attacks [...] No, that's not what's happening," Chris Horner said in a Youtube video regarding the climb to Jebel Mobrah at the UAE Tour.

Stage 3 provided a wake up call for the Olympic champion, who had until then pulled off an almost perfect season start. On the longer and more consistent efforts of the UAE Tour, his fragilities were exposed on the slopes of the two summit finishes. But this is not something that hasn't been seen before, and Horner connects it with the Evenepoel we saw in the first month of competition back in 2025.

"Most likely not what's happening. Let's go into Brabantse Pijl [2025]: Remco Evenepoel dominates, rides fantastic, beats none other than Wout van Aert; goes into Fleche Wallonne, blows up; goes into Liege and blows up spectacularly. That was exactly what we were watching on stage three of UAE Tour, was the same kind of Remco Evenepoel that was having problems at Liège".

At the Volta a Catalunya there will be a more accurate outlook on the Belgian rider's climbing legs, with mountain stage that span several ascents, with the competition being top-tier (featuring Jonas Vingegaard) and with an altitude camp now in the legs. But there will be pressure to perform after a UAE Tour in which he only finished 10th in the overall classification.

Horner argues the German team should take this set of performances very seriously and bgin changing their Geand Tour plans. "Primoz Roglic better start thinking about doing the Tour de France, and every director at Red Bull Bora-Hansgrohe better start thinking about adding Primoz Roglic to the Tour de France roster," he argues.

This is because he didn't identify any problem in the lead-up to the UAE Tour, and on paper Evenepoel should've been able to perform at a much higher level.

"I tried to look and see what kind of training Remco Evenepoel did between Valencia and UAE Tour, if he trained good, if he wasn't sick, if there's no legitimate reason to explain stage three," he argues. "And form from Remco Evenepoel and the penultimate stage when he dropped again and Isaac Del Toro went up and soloed the stage and took the race leader's jersey".