Tom Boonen advises Remco Evenepoel to get away from Belgium - "I never asked to be famous, so I never liked it"

Tom Boonen was present at yesterday's Rouleur Live show, where he has talked about his compatriot Remco Evenepoel, who now leads Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl Team and has become Belgium's new cycling star over the last few months.

"Take your family with you, train in Spain, relax a little bit, so there’s always a barrier in between the crazy Flemish people and yourself," Boonen told Cyclingweekly, directly backing up the decision of the World Chamion to move to Alicante, in Spain, together with his wife whom he married only a month ago. Having been under the spotlight of Belgian media since the junior rankings, and for years being touted as the 'next Eddy Merckx', the pressure has many times harmed his performance on the road.

Following his win in the World Championships, which sees him now racing in the rainbow jersey, Evenepoel would be hard to confuse on Belgian roads, and anticipating an ever larger swarm of variables towards his training, he's decided to move into the Mediterranean coast where he's already spent months last winter.

“Why would you want to be famous? You lose all your privileges of not being famous," Boonen argued. "As a bike rider, I wanted to race bikes and be a good bike rider. I never asked to be famous, so I never liked it. I loved riding my bike and I loved being at races and having people enjoy those races, but I never liked the part of being famous.”

Having been one of the country and sport's most successful classics riders ever, and coming from Belgium, Boonen is one of the few riders who will know the sensation. However he believes Evenepoel is quite a different figure: “I don’t think you can compare him to me. He’s a completely different rider. I know in Belgium it’s because he became world champion at a young age and he’s getting a lot of attention.”

With wins at Liège-Bastogne-Liège, Clasica San Sebastian, Vuelta a Espana and World Championships it is hard to imagine Evenepoel being able to improve on that in 2023, but Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl Team are building a block around him. However, the likes of Jumbo-Visma and UAE Team Emirates consistently improve theirs aswell, the latter for example adding Adam Yates, Jay Vine, Felix Grossschartner and Domen Novak to the team this season alone. r

“I think he has the ability to win the Tour de France, and I’m pretty sure of that,” the former pro believes however.. “I’m not saying he’s going to, but he’s going in the direction of the Grand Tours. The way he raced this year was unbelievable.”