“When you look at that record, your mouth falls open”: Marc Sergeant praises Remco Evenepoel’s “race intelligence” after dramatic European Championship victory

Remco Evenepoel needed almost everything to go right - and a few things to go wrong - before finally completing his collection of major championship road titles in Slovenia. According to Belgian cycling analyst Marc Sergeant, the way Evenepoel handled those twists showed exactly why he deserved the European champion’s jersey.

Evenepoel attacked with around 32 kilometers remaining and was followed only by Giulio Ciccone, creating the decisive two-man move. The Belgian then crashed on a right-hand corner while the pair were working together, allowing Ciccone to briefly go clear before Evenepoel fought his way back.

The Italian refused to contribute much to the chase once the pair had rejoined, leaving Evenepoel to do most of the work. That appeared to have cost the Belgian heading into the final sprint, where Ciccone opened a significant gap after Evenepoel misjudged the last corner.

Yet Evenepoel produced one final acceleration in the closing meters, throwing his bike toward the line and taking the European title by a margin so small that a photo finish was required. Christian Scaroni completed the podium.

Sergeant, who watched the entire race closely, believes Evenepoel's ability to read the situation was one of the defining elements of his victory. “When Evenepoel gave that signal to Debruyne, I knew: he is good,” Sergeant said.

The moment came during the third ascent of Mozjanca, when Belgium was still controlling the race and Evenepoel indicated that the pace needed to increase. Debruyne responded by taking over and driving the selection, with the group reduced to around 20 riders by the summit.

For Sergeant, that was another indication that Evenepoel was feeling strong and understood exactly how he wanted the race to develop. “Sporza reporter Christophe Vandegoor was asking all the Belgians before the race about the plan. But nobody revealed where it would happen. That was also impossible, because nobody had ever thought that Evenepoel would attack in the feed zone. And that makes that attack so strong.”

“You see Evenepoel look back very briefly, feel a momentum and immediately go. Ciccone just manages to react in time, Roglic is caught off guard. That is race intelligence.”

Evenepoel's attack eventually produced the selection that would decide the European title, but the finale became far more complicated than Belgium could have anticipated. After the crash, Ciccone found himself with an opportunity to ride away alone, but chose not to commit fully once Evenepoel had returned.

“Ciccone played a little bit of catenaccio, as they call it in football. Evenepoel had to do 85 percent of the work. And then it turned out that there was another Italian who had broken away in the background, who actually had nothing to do with it anymore, and then he did absolutely nothing more.”

Sergeant also had plenty of praise for the Belgian team, which kept Evenepoel protected and supported deep into the race.

“I saw a very good Belgian team, which provided support to Remco until the very end. De Pestel did his job, Ilan Van Wilder perhaps didn't have his best day uphill, but he was able to do excellent work for a lap. And then, of course, there were Maxim van Gils and Ramses Debruyne.”

That support became particularly important after Evenepoel's crash 35 kilometers from the finish. “Because we have just talked about the sprint, where it almost went wrong, but there was also that crash. Evenepoel could consider himself very lucky that Debruyne and Van Gils were still there to straighten out that situation.”

Debruyne's performance was especially impressive in Sergeant's eyes. “Especially Debruyne was fantastic, it was beautiful to see how he took over from the Italians. If I had been the national coach, I would also have taken Debruyne to the World Championships. But of course, that would have changed little about the result, and now he has certainly given his calling card.”

Evenepoel is now a European road champion alongside his Olympic and world titles, completing an extraordinary championship collection at just 26 years old.

“For one jersey like this or one Olympic title, a lot of riders would sign immediately. But he already has them all. And that at 26. That is very special. Remco is someone who always has supporters and opponents, but nobody can get around his palmares. When you look at that record, your mouth falls open.”