“We are going to see the best version of Remco Evenepoel this season” – José De Cauwer warns the Tour de France will define Red Bull’s 2026

The numbers make for easy hype. Six wins from eight race days, a flawless opening block in new colours, and an immediate sense that Remco Evenepoel has landed at Red Bull - BORA - hansgrohe exactly where he wants to be. On paper, his start to 2026 could hardly have been sharper.

But for Jose De Cauwer, that early-season electricity is only the prologue. The real story, and the real judgement, still sits several months down the road.

“We are going to see the best version of Remco Evenepoel this season,” De Cauwer said in analysis for Sporza. “But whatever happens, this season is only about the Tour.”

Evenepoel’s immediate impact at Red Bull has been dramatic but, in De Cauwer’s eyes, entirely logical. A clean winter, uninterrupted preparation and a rider now firmly into his mid twenties have combined to produce what looks like a natural progression rather than a sudden spike. “Remco came through the winter without any setbacks and worked hard,” De Cauwer noted. “Then these results are not a surprise. But we shouldn’t take for granted everything Remco does.”

That context matters. Evenepoel did not arrive at Red Bull as a rider searching for form. He arrived as a rider searching for the final percentage points, both physically and structurally, needed to turn promise into Tour de France contention.

Red Bull have been explicit since Evenepoel’s arrival that 2026 is not about collecting early trophies for optics. It is about July. The Challenge Mallorca wins, the stage race control, and the visible authority Evenepoel has shown in the bunch are all useful signals, but none of them answer the defining question.

Can he close the gap to Tadej Pogacar and Jonas Vingegaard when it actually matters?

De Cauwer is clear that Red Bull’s internal logic reflects that reality. “Remco is currently where he wants to be,” he said. “And towards the summer, he can still lose a few kilos.”

In other words, this is not peak form. It is positioning.

At 26, De Cauwer believes Evenepoel is entering the most important phase of his career. Not because of talent, which has never been in doubt, but because of timing and maturity.

“He is now 26, he is mature and ready to give the best of himself,” De Cauwer said. “Without accidents, we are going to see the best version of Evenepoel this season.”

That assessment dovetails with Red Bull’s broader strategy. This is a team deliberately building a Tour structure around multiple leaders, experience and personality balance, rather than forcing Evenepoel to carry everything alone from January onwards.

Perhaps the most striking part of De Cauwer’s analysis is not about winning the Tour, but about how success should be measured if Evenepoel falls short.

“Suppose Remco doesn’t win the Tour, or never wins it. Is he then a worse rider than Lucien Van Impe? I don’t think so,” he said.

It is a reminder that the standards applied to Evenepoel are already extreme. His palmares at this age would be career-defining for most riders, yet the conversation continues to orbit almost exclusively around a single race and a single rival.

“If someone is better than him,” De Cauwer added, “then he is the second-best cyclist in the world. Is that a bad thing?”

That perspective also explains why De Cauwer is sceptical about side quests in 2026, including persistent speculation around a Tour of Flanders appearance. “Remco is still searching for that one big moment we all want,” he said. “Getting closer to Pogacar in the Tour. I think everything else should make way for that.”

Red Bull’s role, in De Cauwer’s view, is to protect that clarity. “I hope they don’t give in to any possible whims,” he said. “Plan A, the Tour, is the most important thing.”

Evenepoel’s explosive start to life at Red Bull has done exactly what it needed to do. It has confirmed that the move makes sense, that the preparation worked, and that the rider looks comfortable and confident in his new environment.

But as De Cauwer warns, none of it will ultimately matter if those signs do not translate into progress where the sport still draws its hardest lines.

The best version of Remco Evenepoel may already be emerging. Red Bull’s 2026, however, will still be defined by whether that version can finally shift the balance in the Tour de France.