Remco Evenepoel: "The answer to the question whether I can win a Grand Tour is yes"

Remco Evenepoel is putting in big training days in Calpe currently. Soudal - Quick-Step are having their second training camp, and have hosted a media day this afternoon. Hence, Remco Evenepoel addressed his ambitions and schedule for the year.

"I just want to get through the Tour without what happened in the Giro d'Italia. The answer to the question whether I can win a Grand Tour is yes. In the last Giro I was there for a short time – without illness. But the Tour is a different story,” Evenepoel told Wielerflits today at the team's media day. “I'm just going to take it day by day. Going home with a stage win would be great.” A Top5 was the ambition he self imposed himself weeks ago, as the climber-suited route is not ideal for his abilities.

Nevertheless, that will be his prime focus. A Tour de France debut and taking himself to the limit, in a race he dreams of winning. To be able to do that this year will be a very difficult task, not only with a hard route but also as he faces all of the strongest Grand Tour specialists in the current peloton. The only rider who finished on a podium of a Grand Tour that won't be in the start in Florence is Geraint Thomas - all others will.

“I have already raced a lot against [Primoz] Roglic. In the Vuelta a Catalunya we were at the same level. I've knocked him off a few times in the Vuelta and he's knocked me off. So I know Roglic well. I haven't raced much against Jonas [Vingegaard] and Tadej [Pogacar] in the Grand Tours yet. That is something new, but of course I cannot answer that at the moment. We'll see in the Tour.” Throughout the year he will face his rivals however. Pogacar at Liège-Bastogne-Liège, Vingegaard at Itzulia and Criterium du Dauphiné, and Roglic at the previous two alongside Paris-Nice.

He will start his season in Portugal with the Figueira Champions Classic and Volta ao Algarve, and will also have the Ardennes in his plan. “I am not going to a Grand Tour in May now and so it is a nice option to take part. It is a course that suits me. It is a very open race with few recovery moments," the Belgian said of Amstel Gold Race, where he will make his debut.

“It's nice to have a new goal in the spring, with Paris-Nice and therefore the Amstel. The Flèche Wallonne is still an open question. It will depend on how I come out of the Tour of the Basque Country and the Amstel, but the Amstel and Liège-Bastogne-Liège are already two certainties.”