“You presume nowadays that he’s not a threat... but he has those days where he'll just destroy everyone” - British legend explains Remco Evenepoel's dangerous unpredictability
Cycling
Seven days after destroying the field by 57 seconds to win a fourth successive World Championship time trial, Remco Evenepoel finished 12th in the road race in Montreal. Another seven days later, he was European road champion.
Those results came in a season that had already brought second place at the Tour de France, victory over Tadej Pogacar on Plateau de Solaison and major one-day wins across the calendar.
“It is super weird about Remco Evenepoel, isn’t it?” long-time Tour de France commentator Ned Boulting said on the For the Love of Cycling podcast. “Because of all of the really big hitters, he’s the one most prone, I think, in road racing, to have a bad day or just to be unexpectedly absent when you’re thinking he’s flying and capable of everything. Then all of a sudden, he’s not.”
Evenepoel had been untouchable against the clock in Montreal before Brandon McNulty took the rainbow jersey in the road race a week later, with the Belgian crossing the line 25 seconds behind in 12th.
“It happened a bit in Montreal,” Boulting continued. “By his own admission, he said that wasn’t a good day. There was that Vuelta where he was in the lead and then suddenly he fell away, had to forget about GC and start looking for stages. There’s been quite a lot of that in his career.”
At the 2023 Vuelta a Espana, Evenepoel had worn the red jersey earlier in the race and remained firmly in GC contention until losing more than 27 minutes on Stage 13 in the Pyrenees. His title defence was over, but he went on to win three stages and take the mountains jersey.
Remco Evenepoel won the 2026 European Championships
“He’ll just destroy everyone”
“But you know what it is with Remco?” replied British cycling icon and stage winner at all three Grand Tours, David Millar. “You kind of presume nowadays that he’s not a threat. But then the problem with Remco is he has those days where he’ll just destroy everyone.”
Pogacar had already established himself comfortably at the head of the Tour when he set the pace himself on the final climb to Plateau de Solaison. Isaac del Toro could not stay with him, but Evenepoel did, before beating Pogacar in the sprint to claim his first Tour road-stage victory.
The result moved Evenepoel into second overall after Jonas Vingegaard crashed out earlier that day. Two days later he won again, beating Pogacar by 28 seconds in the 26.1-kilometre time trial. By Paris, Evenepoel was second at the Tour for the first time in his career, 6:26 behind the five-time winner.
His career already contained the 2022 Vuelta victory, two Liège-Bastogne-Liège wins, the 2022 world road title and his Olympic road race and time trial double in Paris. “Everyone’s always on their toes with him, treading around: ‘Is he on one of his flyers?’” Millar said.
“Yeah, there’s enough frequency,” Boulting replied.
“Exactly,” said Millar. “And when it happens, it’s like, ‘Oh, crap. That’s incredible.’”
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Never quite safe to write off
The World Championship road race was followed immediately by Evenepoel beating Giulio Ciccone to the European title. A week later at Il Lombardia, with Pogacar absent and Evenepoel among the leading favourites, Paul Seixas rode away from him on Civiglio and the Belgian eventually finished fourth.
Evenepoel admitted afterwards that he had struggled to rediscover his absolute top form since the Tour. “I almost feel that’s going to be his whole career,” Millar said. “Once every two years, he’s going to do something like the Olympics or the Worlds, and it’s enough to plant the seed of doubt in every race he does that he might do it. So he’s just always a threat.”
Attention is already turning towards what comes next. Evenepoel has opened the door to a return to the Giro d’Italia in 2027, telling reporters ahead of Lombardia that the option remains on the table depending on the route. Both of his previous Giro appearances ended prematurely, including his 2023 withdrawal with Covid while wearing the pink jersey.
Red Bull - BORA - hansgrohe are also expected to continue using more than one GC leader at the Grand Tours, with Ralph Denk saying the team will decide how to deploy Evenepoel only once the routes of the Giro and Tour are known.
For a rider who spent 2026 winning across the Ardennes, the Tour, San Sebastián, Québec and two different championship disciplines, the next test may come on Italian roads he still has unfinished business with.
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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- Podcast sounds great. Two so called experts stating the f*cking obvious.wrsty04-11-2026
- A mindset that reminds me of Tim Declerq. I loved watching that guy just pound away the kilometers, hours at the front, holding an entire breakaway in check on his own. Bjerg seems like a similar guy. Curling, the team sport.RidesHills04-11-2026
- He will be lol, but he can still win on the climbs hahaawp04-11-2026
- I would love to have his inconsistency. How many wins this year? 2 TdF stages, a WC, a Euro championship, San Sebastian, multiple wins early year. Monument podiums. I'd take it. I don't think he has a chance in the TdF, but he is still amazing.mij04-11-2026
- He's not going to win the TdF. Maybe if they make every single stage a TT he could win. But I still believe Tadej would just sharpen his TT skills and win.mij04-11-2026
- You beat me to it. Should he make a full recovery (likely) and go light early in the year. One, two, three. Don't ask me, I don't give a damn. Should he be on a Feel-Like-He's-Fixin'-to-Die High.Yepperoni04-11-2026
- The deciding factor may be the (TBD) number of (any type of) kilometers without Pogacar.Yepperoni04-11-2026
- Unexplained chronic fatigue is an all too common bitch. The hard to find definitive answer may lie buried in gut mechanisms. A mystery of the deep.Yepperoni04-11-2026
- It's weird to say Evenepoel would be making a "serious mistake by adding the 2027 Giro d'Italia to his calendar, warning that such a decision could even be interpreted as a lack of confidence in his ability to win the Tour de France." It may well be a mistake but with so many commentators (of all sorts) continuously claiming almost everything Remco does as being a mistake, almost nobody should care what the pundits and the disparagers should say. His team may not want him to do the Giro, and that matters. But it's possibly or probably up to Remco to decide and it may not have to be decided on until a month or so ahead of the race. Yes , Remco is inconsistent much like the majority of the best riders but he's enjoying a period of not having been recently injured (or sick). Whatever he does he need not be concerned with critics who will second guess any perceived failure no matter what. I suspect he will have enough other races on his schedule so he won't be considering it. But the worst reason to not race it is because of what some will say - humorous that be.Yepperoni04-11-2026
- I'll say clean sweep all grand tourZamorano04-11-2026
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