Remco Evenepoel on expected battle with Pogacar: "It will be a pleasure to race against him, but it will also hurt"

Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl Team are heading to Tirreno-Adriatico with an absolutely stacked team, and Remco Evenepoel will be testing himself for the overall classification. With Julian Alaphilippe, Kasper Asgreen and Mark Cavendish, the team will likely be stage hunting above all, but he eyes an important learning step which will be going head-to-head with Tadej Pogacar.

"Does that make me nervous? No, it's always fun to compete against the biggest names in the pack," Evenepoel said when asked about his rivals including Tadej Pogacar. "I'm here to learn, to watch and hopefully also get good results."

"He seems unbeatable, but everyone thought the same of Mathieu van der Poel in the Tour of Flanders. And yet Asgreen was able to beat him. So we have to believe in ourselves. It will be a pleasure to race against him, but it will also hurt," he added in a pre-race press conference he did alongside Julian Alaphilippe, who is set to start the Italian stage-race despite his small injuries at Tirreno-Adriatico where he crashed out of contention.

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After having a successful start to the season with wins at the Volta a Comunitat Valenciana and Volta ao Algarve. At the latter he also took the overall classification comfortably. At Tirreno-Adriatico however, he will find tougher competition with the UAE and Strade Bianche winner at the start, and some high mountain riding which won't suit him as well as his February calendar.

"It is certainly a step higher... This team always wants to win, of course, but the opposition here is enormous. So I can't really say that the final win is a goal. A lot can happen, we do it day by day," Evenepoel said.

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The queen stage will see the riders tackle the brutal Monte Carpegna twice. However, it will come after two hilly and explosive stages where many can loose the race: "It is probably a good test to see where I am in terms of that explosiveness. Everything depends on how I feel at the time. What I did in training does not count, I still have to have fresh legs at the moment that climb is coming. I can't say yet if I'll be good there."