Remco Evenepoel singles out Tadej Pogacar as main rival for road race Worlds: "He is the man to beat, but that's why I'm here"

The World Championships begin tomorrow in Zurich and Remco Evenepoel is the man to beat for the time-trial event. However for the road race that is not the case; the Belgian looks at Tadej Pogacar as the main favourite but he is confident that he can challenge the Slovenian in a route that is good for his skillset.

“We more or less know each other’s form, but it’s not like we can just ride together. Mathieu is not a compatriot or a teammate,” Evenepoel said in words to Sporza in a press conference. “I haven’t done the circuit myself yet, but if someone like Mathieu focuses on it, he’ll be ready. Wout van Aert could have done it too. But we’ll have to wait and see whether Mathieu can handle that accumulation of difficult laps. Although he’ll definitely be there.”

Evenepoel believes that in van der Poel and Pogacar will be the main challengers for the rainbow jersey, alongside himself. Evenepoel has recently improved form and this year he has shown himself at an impressive level when it came to performing on his big goals. If he can achieve the same level in Switzerland this week, he will be a big threat for all events he takes part in.

“The Tour is a different story. It’s another step and a new chance to measure myself. Tadej looks very good. It won't be self-evident, but I can trust that I can handle him and that I can make it a great race," he says, comparing the course to the Ardennes classics. "The World Championship is similar to those races. He is the man to beat, but that's why I'm here.”

The route will be 274 kilometers long and feature 4200 meters of climbing, something which will make the race quite selective, but the final 20 kilometers of the race lack any meaningful climb, meaning that this could become a very tactical race towards the end, specially as it will be disputed by national teams and not the traditional team blocks.