"Sometimes you wonder: how many setbacks can you keep on dealing with?" - Quick-Step DS laments more bad luck for Remco Evenepoel

After taking another positive step in 2024, Remco Evenepoel was supposed to be linking up with Soudal - Quick-Step teammates in Calpe this December, preparing for 2025. Sadly though, due to a training crash, the Belgian is notably absent.

In a casual training ride in Belgium earlier this month, Evenepoel collided with the opening door of a BPost van, leaving the double Olympic champion hospitalised with a number of broken bones and a dislocated collarbone among other injuries, requiring surgery. "The first thing he told me was: 'F*ck'," Soudal - Quick-Step sports director Klaas Lodewyck recalls to Sporza. "Now it is important to support him as best as possible in this difficult time."

Given this is far from the first serious crash Evenepoel has been involved in over recent years though, another setback does raise concerns for his leader from Lodewyck. "Sometimes you wonder: how many setbacks can you keep on dealing with?" He questions out loud. "Remco also talked about yet another setback, because something like that is not endless. But okay, he has to stop thinking about racing for a while and see this period as an extra long winter. No matter how difficult that will be for him."

Nevertheless, the 2025 season is still one faced with optimism from Lodewyck. "It is still early to say anything about his recovery, we leave that entirely up to the doctors. So we do not want to put a specific date on his return. We will probably only have a better idea of ​​how far he is in mid-January," he explains. "There is a good chance that we will have to skip a month and a half and postpone his season start accordingly. Only then can we see what his first race could be and look forward to what is still possible towards the classics."

"We are already trying to find some bright spots: which week will he be able to get back on the bike? Or which races can he still take part in? It is all still a mix of emotions for the time being, but when that has calmed down mentally, we can look ahead again," he concludes. "He now has the space to think about his big goals and what we will have to do to achieve them. As a team we can now nicely lay out the puzzle for him."