“We’re not avoiding anyone” – Red Bull reveal Remco Evenepoel wanted early-season test against Tadej Pogacar
Cycling
From the outside, Remco Evenepoel’s early-season calendar could be misread as caution. A February stage race without Tadej Pogacar or Jonas Vingegaard on the startline is easily framed as convenience rather than confrontation.
Inside Red Bull - BORA - hansgrohe, the thinking was the opposite.
“We’re not avoiding anyone,” said Zak Dempster, explaining why Evenepoel targeted the UAE Tour as part of his 2026 build-up in conversation with Cycling News. The original motivation, he revealed, was simple: Evenepoel expected Tadej Pogacar to be there.
That clarification matters. It strips away the idea that Red Bull are managing Evenepoel away from danger, or that his electric start to the season has been engineered in a vacuum. The intent was to measure, not to hide.
Early dominance, real benchmarks
Evenepoel’s opening weeks in Red Bull colours have already set a tone. Wins across the Challenge Mallorca series, control in the team time trial, and a commanding overall victory at the Volta a Comunitat Valenciana have provided visible confirmation that the move has landed cleanly.
Dempster is keen to stress that those results were not achieved against soft opposition.
“The win in Valencia was against a top-class field,” he said, pointing to riders such as Joao Almeida as genuine reference points rather than placeholders. The UAE Tour, even without Pogacar and Vingegaard, remains “a really strong start list” and “an important test”.
In other words, Red Bull are not treating February form as decoration. They are treating it as information.
Remco Evenepoel is already shining at Red Bull - BORA - hansgrohe
Racing as preparation, not protection
One of the clearest threads running through Red Bull’s 2026 planning is a resistance to over-managing Evenepoel’s path. Rather than insulating him in controlled environments, the team has leaned into racing as a primary development tool.
“You get a hell of a lot out of that last 45 minutes of a race where you’re in the fight,” Dempster said. “Maybe even more than an extra week at altitude in January.”
That philosophy helps explain why Evenepoel added races in Mallorca, why his form has been sharpened in competition, and why the absence of an early altitude camp is seen internally as a feature rather than a flaw.
Contrary to modern orthodoxy, Red Bull believes a rider can reach a very high level without disappearing onto a mountain at the first opportunity. The work, for now, has been done on the road.
A stable winter, finally uninterrupted
There is also a quieter, but no less important, foundation beneath this start. For the first time in several seasons, Evenepoel came through the winter without crashes or setbacks.
“Just being able to get on your bike every day at 9.30 and come home for lunch,” Dempster said, describing what he called the biggest difference. Stability, rather than reinvention, has been the cornerstone.
That clean run has allowed Red Bull to implement a back-to-basics approach around a new coach, a new performance structure and a rider entering what many consider the prime window of his career.
The Tour still defines everything
None of this changes the ultimate measure of success. Evenepoel’s early-season authority has already prompted questions about whether he is peaking too soon, but Red Bull’s messaging has been consistent: this is not the destination.
After the UAE Tour, Evenepoel will head to altitude with co-leader Florian Lipowitz of the Tour de France, before moving through Catalunya and the Ardennes Classics. Pogacar will re-enter the picture soon enough.
The early signal, though, is important. Evenepoel wanted Pogacar on the startline. He was looking for the confrontation, not sidestepping it.
For a team intent on challenging the sport’s current hierarchy rather than orbiting it, that mindset may be as significant as any result already on the board.
Kieran WoodDeputy Editor-in-Chief
Kieran Wood is a sports journalist based in Wales and has been active in journalism since 2022. He regularly contributes to DartsNews.com and CyclingUpToDate.com, where he covers professional cycling and darts. In cycling, his work includes liveblogs from major races, including the Tour de France, the Giro d’Italia, and La Vuelta a España, alongside race reports and analysis. He has also conducted interviews with professional riders.
His reporting spans the full racing calendar, from one-day classics to stage races, with a focus on accurate, real-time coverage and clear contextual analysis. For statistics, results, and historical context, he regularly uses resources such as ProCyclingStats. To support reporting on rider activity and training context where relevant, he also references Strava.
In his work, Kieran places strong emphasis on careful sourcing, editorial accuracy, and updating articles as new, verified information becomes available.
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- He lives in Monaco
Rafionain-Glas03-11-2026 - It's also highly significant for Lorenzo Finn as he won there last year. Also Mateo Ramírez and Henrique Bravo if they goRafionain-Glas03-11-2026
- This is a phenomenal course design. I do wish that they'd stretch these tours for the women to at least 2 weeks.RidesHills03-11-2026
- This is an amazing route, honestly. Let's hope that it attracts riders to make it a compelling and competitive race. Side bar amusement: going to Slovenia and passing pretty close to Pogačar's house. I wonder if they were tempting him to get all 3 jerseys at once after winning the Tour and Vuelta. After all, only a very few have ever had all three at the same time (Froome being the last).RidesHills03-11-2026
- He was a child two years agoRafionain-Glas03-11-2026
- A great route aswell. Col d'Arpy is a toughieRafionain-Glas03-11-2026
- Let Torito have a shot at itRafionain-Glas03-11-2026
- A great route, much more exciting than the Tour de France. Monte Livata is an interesting one, because they experimented with it at the 2026 Baby Giro, and it was fantastic. 4 km at 10%, then 10 km at 6.5% made for a great spectacle. The stage 16 is horrible. Montaner is also used in the U23s, in Giro del BelvedereRafionain-Glas03-11-2026
- I remember when Mark went through that. He was really experiencing lows and thought about quiting many times. It took him a long time to recover. I, like many others were overjoyed when he came back. I hope Lafay has been tested. I wish him the best.Paggss03-11-2026
- That sucks for him. I've always wondered what guys like him do after retiring from cycling - go back to uni? He's still a very young manCrashjames03-11-2026
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