Remco Evenepoel has been voted for rider of the year in the Velo d'Or awards, and in the opinion of many, he was the most successful male rider in the peloton this season. He's collected a string of pictures that have been taken of him, showing them off on Instagram, and has talked about his favourite.
"Favorite photo? I choose two. One is that of the arrival at Liège-Bastogne-Liege, with my parents and Oumi (his wife, ed.)," Evenepoel told Het Laatste Nieuws. "I think that victory was the turning point of my career. At that moment the fall of Lombardia 2020 went definitively on file. I was so excited that in the last 500 meters of the race I was struggling to breathe, almost hyperventilating. Luckily, there were no corners or I would have risked crashing."
2022 included wild success for the Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl Team rider. Victories at Liege-Bastogne-Liège, Clasica San Sebastian and the World Championships saw him become one of the most prolific one-day racers in the peloton, taking wins in the hilly classics with his stupendous climbing form and almost unmatched rolling speed on his solo attacks on flat roads. However it was at the Vuelta a Espana where his second favourite photo came from:
“The group with my teammates and the staff, in the morning before the last stage of the Vuelta a España. A beautiful moment. That success was something collective, it would never have been possible without the people portrayed in that photograph," he said, having taken the red jersey into Madrid. "But I don't forget the Clasica San Sebastian, because it's my favorite race. I did everything to be there and I think that in that race he had the best legs of the whole of 2022: I hadn't specifically prepared myself, but the data show that that was my best performance of the year, from a strictly physical point of view".
In 2022 he put on a show that will be hard to ever match, however he starts the new season with new goals. "I hope to have some pink photos to show by the end of 2023. I will do everything to be at the start of the Giro in my best possible condition, perhaps with the same legs as in the Vuelta or the 2022 World Championships.
"I'm already working towards that goal, but I also want to win Liège and the World Championships again. However, I would be satisfied if I managed to win just one of these three races. A year like 2022, in which everything works perfectly, I think is unique," he concluded.