Remco Evenepoel describes the current season as “not entirely successful” and is looking forward to 2024

Tuesday, October 10, 2023 at 9:03 am

Remco Evenepoel has won thirteen races at WorldTour level this year. For example, he was the best in Liège-Bastogne-Liège and Clásica San Sebastian, was crowned world time trial champion and became Belgian road champion. “But it could have been more impressive, had it not been for Covid at the Giro or with a little better preparation for the Vuelta,” Evenepoel says in a wide-ranging interview. latest news.

In this sense, I consider this season “not entirely successful,” said the Soudal Quick Step rider. “I lack a podium place in a Grand Tour. This means that I do not give my season 10 out of 10, but 8.5 to 9. Evenpoel got the pink in the Giro d’Italia when he had to leave the race due to Corona on the first rest day. Could he have won? With that tour?” “We’ll never know, but… I think so. I wrote down the values ​​that I had never achieved before and during my successful tour of Spain 2022.

feverish Preparing for the Vuelta
In the Vuelta a España, things got worse on the thirteenth stage, in front of the Col du Tourmalet. Evenpoel had to give up early in the stage and was able to forget about the top order. The 23-year-old contestant says it had to do with the “very hectic” preparation. “He travelled, scouted, trained and then quickly raced in the double World Cup in between. Far from ideal. Unconsciously, it fooled me.”

For example, Evenepoel states that he did not get enough training between the World Cup road race and the World Cup time trial. “While my competitor base strengthened, my competitor base declined for a while. Then I will quickly try to make up for what I lost there during my training in Andorra. With seven or eight hour sessions a day, which is what you do a month before a big tour. Not in the last 10 days. “

“I’ve unloaded. Physically, but also mentally.”
On the morning of the trip to the Tourmalet in question, he did not feel refreshed after sleeping poorly for several nights. “I thought I recognized the same symptoms as at the Giro. ‘Crap,’ I thought. ‘I’ve got it again.’ Not so.”

So there is no disease, but what went wrong in the Pyrenees phase? “We considered everything carefully. This is how we effectively got out of this difficult preparation. That day it became too much for my body. ‘Stop,’ he said. ‘It’s over, it was good, deal with it yourself.’ My head was still “He wants to, but my legs no longer follow suit. They gave way. Physically, but also mentally. And I took time off, which upon reflection worked wonders. Because the next day I was back to my old self. Very strange.”

2024
Although he was unsuccessful in the Giro and Vuelta this year, Evenepoel continues to focus on the riding classifications in the Grand Tours. He believes that with good preparation, he can still score there. One day, he wants to return to the Giro, but in 2024 he will focus entirely on the Tour de France. His season will start a little later next year. “The team still has to decide, but I will probably resume from February 15-20,” said Erokogel van Schipdaal, who also wants to compete in Liège-Bastogne-Liège again in the spring. “And maybe I’ll add another memorial.”

To prepare well for the Tour, he also wants to ride more in France. “The UAE Tour – Paris-Nice could be a great first group in that sense. Then it’s time to move towards the classics with the altitude training period. Definitely LBL. The UAE Tour is a ‘warm-up’ and Paris-Nice is ‘before the seriousness'” “I also want to add the Flèche Wallonne and the Gold Race to my list of achievements one day, but I don’t know if that will happen before next year. Maybe canceling the Giro will make more room to race in March or April. We’ll see.”