T H E MAKING OF
REMCO
EVENEPOEL
The 2022 UCI Road World Champion and Vuelta a España winner is currently the hottest property in the pro peloton . We look at the 22-year-old Belgian ’ s unorthodox route into the sport .
It is summer in Lanzarote and Remco Evenepoel , the 15-year-old footballer and captain of his beloved RSC Anderlecht and Belgian U16 national team , is bored . “ Remco came up to me and asked if I wanted to join him on a bike ride ,” remembers his team-mate Sebastiaan Bornauw , who by coincidence was at the same hotel with his own family .
“ I said yes because I thought it would be 50km ,” continues Bornauw . “ But Remco said , ‘ Oh no , it ’ s much longer than that . It ’ ll be 160km or 180km .’ I said , ‘ Remco , I ’ m a footballer and I weigh 90kg . I can do 50km , but Lanzarote is not flat and I haven ’ t trained for that .’ He said he had trained , so I said , ‘ Remco , good luck ,’ and he went by himself . He just loved to suffer physically .” Evenepoel , now the UCI Road World Champion , a Vuelta a España winner and the hottest young thing in pro cycling , was a defensive midfielder and a left-back , good on the ball and an organised and inspirational leader . But his team-mates , including Bornauw – who now plays in Germany ’ s Bundesliga for VfL Wolfsburg – would often remark on Evenepoel ’ s endurance traits rather than his footballing qualities . Indeed , when he played for PSV Eindhoven between the ages of 11 and 14 , coaches at the Dutch team remarked on the abnormally high V02 max possessed by the kid with floppy blond hair . Upon returning to Anderlecht , his coach Stéphane Stassin was staggered by Evenepoel ’ s capacity to never tire , and he vividly remembers the first weekend in October 2016 when Evenepoel was 16 . “ We had played a big game on the Saturday and we had another big game on the Tuesday ,” Stassin says . “ I told Remco not to do anything on the Sunday because I knew he liked to go running or cycle 60-70km with his father . “ On the Sunday I was running the Brussels Half Marathon and I started early because I was running it with a disability organisation . At one moment I heard a group of really fast runners coming by , and there was this
one guy in an Anderlecht training kit who said , ‘ Hey , coach , how are you ?’ It was Remco , and he was running like crazy again – a day after he played a game .” There were 6 444 finishers in the
Evenepoel ’ s work ethic was unrivalled on the football pitch .
“ Drive and focus were his standout attributes ”
event , Evenepoel finished 13th in a time of 1:16:15 . It was unbelievable , but Stassin was not surprised . “ It was just typical of Remco that he could not let this race go by without running really fast ,” he says . Stassin had grown accustomed to watching Evenepoel astonish everyone in endurance challenges , including in pre-season teambuilding ones . “ No one ever wanted to be in Remco ’ s group because he would go too fast and his team-mates would have to follow him when it was meant to be for pleasure and leisure ,” Stassin says . Evenepoel ’ s then-team-mate , Michiel de Looze , recalls one such exercise . “ We had to run a 10km race which included sections of sand , obstacles and water ,” the Belgian says . “ As a group we said we ’ d run it but we would cheat a little and not do all the obstacles . We didn ’ t want to run our lungs out . At the end we realised that Remco had won the race . We got to him and said , ‘ Remco , what the hell are you doing ? This is a team-building exercise .’” Drive and focus were Evenepoel ’ s standout attributes , but he also had an eye on Brand Remco before it became a thing , studying sciences and languages at the Sint-Godelieve Institute . One close confidant says : “ Remco has always been good with people and he likes the attention . Is he clever ? He ’ s good with languages and has emotional intelligence . Intellectually …” he tails off , letting us guess the rest . Whatever the answer , at football training he was continuing to amaze . It is said that Evenepoel – who would train on his mountain bike in the summer – still holds the beep test record at Anderlecht , although the club could not verify that . But everyone remembers his battles with Hannes Delcroix , now playing in the first team at Anderlecht , to run further than anyone else . “ He and Hannes were always the last ones ,” Bornauw laughs . “ Everyone else would be dead , already sitting down for five minutes , and they were still going . I don ’ t think Remco was the most talented player that ever existed , but his physical capabilities were incredible .” Stassin again : “ When he was doing these tests , the coaches said to Remco as a joke that he should stop playing football and go and do some individual sports because his abilities were better suited towards these sports .” The joke , however , soon transpired to be reality . Evenepoel hadn ’ t developed at the same rate as his team-mates and he was dropped first by the national team and then by Anderlecht . He fumed that he “ received no explanation ”. Despite signing for KV Mechelen who were prepared to offer him a professional contract six months down the line , Evenepoel had fallen out of love with the sport . He hung up his football boots and picked up a bike . But he did so in secret .
The 22-year-old ’ s Vuelta win could tee-up a Tour de France tilt in 2023 .
‘ Always outside playing sport ’
Fred Vandervennet , a former three-time Belgian marathon champion , had known Evenepoel since he was born . A friend of his father Patrick , who was also a professional cyclist and later a plasterer , Vandervennet recalls how aged just three , “ Remco could play with a football like I had never seen before .” Throughout his childhood , Evenepoel “ was never playing with game consoles ; he was always outside , always playing sport .” In the spring of 2017 , with his football days numbered , Evenepoel rang Vandervennet . “ He called me and told me he wanted to do some cycling ,” Vandervennet recollects . “ I asked him if his parents knew and he said no . ‘ Okay , good ,’ I said .” Over the course of the next fortnight , Vandervennet coached Evenepoel , who was discreetly using his father ’ s old bike . “ After two weeks , his parents realised that the normal Remco was no longer in the house ,” Vandervennet continues . “ His parents sat him down and said , ‘ Remco , what is happening ?’ He said , ‘ Call Fred , he knows everything .’” His mother , a hairdresser , and his father rang Vandervennet , who adds : “ His dad was really happy and said , ‘ Fred , I think we have a cyclist .’” It was clear from the outset that Evenepoel had potential on a bike . “ The first time I followed Remco , we did a hilly route in the Ardennes and his average speed was more than 30kph ,” Vandervennet says . “ That was his first ride with me . I knew he was exceptional .” Within a few weeks , Evenepoel wanted to race , and his father rang Patrick Verschueren , the manager of the Forte Young junior team . “ I said I wasn ’ t so sure because he was still a footballer ,” Verschueren recollects . “ But I said I ’ d like to see how he rides and how he is mentally . As soon as I saw him riding , I said , ‘ Okay , you can come to our team ’.” Evenepoel had shown enough promise
“ He was a superstar in the making and declared that only winning counts ”
to persuade Verschueren , but there was an awful lot of improvement to be done . “ In the beginning I thought , ‘ Oh no , he ’ s never going to be something .’ He was a shocker !” Verschueren laughs . “ It was obvious he was still a footballer . He had a terrible position . The first thing I told his father was that he needed to get Remco a good bike fit .” Vandervennet interjects with his own memory . “ He was one of the worst riders I have ever seen going downhill ,” he chuckles . “ He was so bad . I eventually took him in the car with me and told him this is how you take curves .”
On the start line
On 2 April 2017 Evenepoel pinned a race number on for the very first time in a small race in Zoutleeuw . Verschueren remembers : “ In his first few races he said he wanted to learn how to ride in a big group , but he said , ‘ Give me two months and I will attack .’” Going off first impressions , it was fanciful stuff . “ The first few weeks he couldn ’ t ride a bike ,” Verschueren goes on . “ He was scared in the peloton and the other riders had to tell him to stay calm . His team-mates were coming to me and saying , ‘ Shut up , Patrick , what is he going to do ?’” It ’ s true , they were bewildered as to why a novice cyclist was racing in what eventually turned out to be the country ’ s best junior team , with seven of the riders going on to become professionals . Danny van der Tuuk , who now rides for Kern Pharma , says : “ When I first met Remco he was crashing a lot and he couldn ’ t finish races . We were like , ‘ Hmm , not sure if you ’ re gonna be successful if you keep crashing .’” A month after his race debut , Evenepoel broke his nose in a French race , his first competition outside of Belgium . Van der Tuuk remembers “ thinking that maybe he was going to quit cycling because if you crash hard and go to hospital , naturally you question what you are doing .”
Be the best
On the day he turned 17 , Evenepoel had taken to Instagram to write that he was “ ready to do some crazy s ** t ”, accompanied by a meme that read : be the best ; f ** k the rest . Four months on from that January 2017 post , the footballer-cum-cyclist came true to his word . Verschueren remembers : “ After two weeks of racing , he told me , ‘ OK , Patrick , I am now safe in the peloton and I want to attack . I won ’ t wait two months like I said – I ’ ll do it now .’” In just his sixth race he competed for the win , and then in his 10th Evenepoel claimed his maiden triumph at a race in Bollebeek . Evenepoel went to the Junior Tour of the Basque Country in July , winning a stage and finishing second overall . “ Every day it was attack , attack , attack ,” Verschueren remembers . “ He won every other jersey but the leader ’ s . “ A month later we had the Junior Amstel Gold and Remco ordered a cake and champagne for his dad ’ s birthday . He told the team that he would be winning for his dad , and he did – by three minutes .” By now , the word was out – the ex-footballer was a cycling superstar in the making and he declared on social media that “ only winning counts ”.
Training in Spain
In 2018 he rode for the Acrog-Pauwels Sauzen junior team , and he made an instant impact at their winter training camp in Mojácar in Spain , riding an extra two hours every day . Casper van Uden , now of Team DSM , remembers : “ There was a 20-minute climb that we used for a test . It was meant to be some fun racing and testing , but Remco smashed all of the previous record times . “ The next day we went out to practise some leadouts and sprints together and the plan was to try and beat the other sprint trains . Remco was basically a whole train on his own .” When racing got under way , he won the Junior Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne solo . “ We all finished and said , ‘ Heck , he ’ s so , so good ,’” van Uden says . “ We started saying , ‘ Remco ’ s doing Remco Things .’” Over the coming months , Evenepoel won pretty much every single race he competed in . Davide Bomboi , his room-mate in that period , says : “ Before a race he ’ d say he was going to attack here or do this or that , and then afterwards he would just laugh because he did exactly what he said he would .” In a conversation with his coach Vandervennet , Evenepoel said that “ his goals for the rest of the season were to win everything ”, and come May ’ s National Championships , his team-mates were instructed to help him win . “ Usually everyone gets their own chances at the Nationals , but the DS said before the start Remco ’ s the strongest so we had to help him . If he won we ’ d get € 100 each ,” Bomboi remembers . “ We obviously all agreed but he attacked after 2km and won by five minutes . We didn ’ t have to do anything and still got € 100 each !” Seven weeks later , he won the European Junior Road Race Championships by almost 10 minutes , a highlight in a season in which he won 31 races , topped 15 general , points and mountains classifications , and ended it as junior road race and time trial world champion . He skipped an agreed move to Hagens Berman Axeon to join Deceuninck-Quick Step , becoming the first WorldTour rider to be born in the 21st century . His first race as a professional , the Vuelta a San Juan in Argentina , began the day after he turned 19 , and he won the youth classification . Twelve months later , he won the race overall . “ It was ridiculous ,” his team-mate Pieter Serry says . “ He was behind some echelons and the way he closed them , the way he came back to save his GC was really quite impressive because five or six teams were pulling full-gas to drop him and they didn ’ t manage it .” In April 2022 , four months before he won the Vuelta , Evenepoel won Liège-Bastogne-Liège , his first Monument victory . On the bus that morning , he reflected on his journey from riding his bike to football training and running in forests the day after games to being one of the biggest names in cycling . Vandervennet says : “ He sent me a message before Liège saying that if he wins today , it ’ s thanks to me . I thought , ‘ Oh la la , he is going to win .’” Evenepoel spent the first 90 minutes of the race chatting with van der Tuuk , who was competing in his first Monument . “ We talked about the past , about what we did in the juniors ,” van der Tuuk remembers , “ and I told him today was his moment to win his first Monument . He just smiled .” Evenepoel might have gone about it in an unconventional way , but it was obvious from the beginning of his sporting days that he was destined to be one of the world ’ s finest endurance athletes . Stassin , his long-time football coach , concludes : “ Remco always wanted to be the best at everything . None of us are surprised that he is .”
Remarkable recovery
In August 2020 , Evenepoel , then 20 , hit a bridge and fell into a ravine at Il Lombardia , fracturing his pelvis and suffering a lung contusion . “ It was a very bad and complicated fracture , in the exact place where he needed to sit on the saddle … and at a critical age when his body was in full development ,” say his physiotherapist , Lieven Maesschalck . “ I knew he would come back because I ’ d seen this injury a few times before , but he was asking , ‘ Will I come back ? Yes or no ?’ When I first met him , I directly felt his big energy to return 100 %. He was always asking questions . You cannot imagine his mental strength and focus . I ’ ve worked with lots of elite sportspeople , but at this age , his mental strength , the treatment he could do , the focus he had , it was remarkable .”
Worlds history
Straight off the back of becoming Belgium ’ s first Grand Tour winner since 1978 , Remco Evenepoel became the country ’ s first road world champion in 10 years – in Wollongong , Australia , in September 2022 . His 25km solo victory was a stunning ride that even moved Remcosceptic Eddy Merckx to praise the 22-year-old . “ He was one leg above the others ,” said Merckx . “ I enjoyed seeing that , especially the way he pulled it off .” ‘ The Cannibal ’ went on to back Evenepoel for the Tour de France : “ Of course it is up to him alone to decide , but why not the Tour ?” he said in an interview with Belgian outlet Het Laatste . Merckx even predicted that “ in a couple of years ” his young compatriot could be capable of winning any and all of the five one-day Monuments . After the struggles he faced to come back from his horror crash in Il Lombardia , it ’ s a huge step forward for the young Belgian , who no longer has anything to prove . Evenepoel attacked from a strong front group with 35km left of the 267km race from Helensburgh to Wollongong in southeast Australia . Ten kilometres later he dispatched Kazakh breakaway companion Alexey Lutsenko on Mount Pleasant , riding on alone to finish with a 2:21 advantage . In an interview with Het Nieuwsblad , Evenepoel said the final 25km had been a combination of the longest and most amazing he ’ d ever ridden . “ It was a super long race and in the last lap it was hard for me too . But it ended up being the most beautiful 25km of my life . I still feel like I ’ m on a cloud . I have never experienced this before and it will only get bigger in Belgium ,” he said in anticipation of returning home .
Hero ’ s welcome
A quick training ride before a morning ceremony to be made an honorary citizen and receive a spanking new bike , before heading to a huge party in the capital thrown especially for you . This might sound like the Carlsberg of birthdays for many of us , but it was reality for Evenepoel as he was celebrated in Brussels by a crowd of thousands for his victories at the Vuelta a España and World Championship . Setting out at 8.30am in his brand-new rainbow kit , the Quick Step-Alpha Vinyl rider dashed off a brisk 51.75km in just over an hour and a half , before changing into his Sunday best and heading to the day ’ s first official appointment in Dilbeek , just outside Brussels . After being awarded honorary citizenship of the municipality – which is where he grew up – Evenepoel was given a rainbow-liveried Specialized S-Works and was also presented with a jersey from Anderlecht football club , which he used to play for as a youngster , signed by the first team . That theme continued at the Grand Place in Brussels , where he was greeted by a huge crowd , many of whom had cycled the 5.8km from Dilbeek to the centre of the capital ( Evenepoel took the car , reportedly saying , “ I ’ ve done enough cycling .” Can ’ t argue with that ). With his father Patrick and fiancée ( now wife ) Oumi in tow , among others , the 22-year-old world champion looked in his element as he took to the balcony of the Brussels Town Hall , dressed in his rainbow bands , complete with gold medal . He waved , took selfies , and even sang along to the thumping Europop , driving the huge crowd wild . Evenepoel “ played the crowd like an accomplished entertainer ,” reported Het Nieuwsblad . “ What can ’ t that boy do ?” Despite his youth , Evenepoel took it all in his stride , giving the impression that this is exactly where he was hoping , and wishing to be all along . “ He doesn ’ t mind being the centre of attention ,” says Belgian cycling journalist Jan Pieter De Vlieger . “ All his life he ’ s been working towards being a big shot in sports , whether it ’ s in football or in cycling . So for him , it ’ s just a confirmation that he ’ s at the place that he always was aiming for .” New world champion or not , it may surprise outside onlookers to learn that Remco Evenepoel isn ’ t the darling of Belgian fans countrywide . There is still a significant faction of Belgian fans who view his victory in Wollongong as less of a win for Evenepoel , more of a loss for Wout van Aert . “ I don ’ t know if it ’ s 50-50 ,” says journalist Hans Vandeweghe , “ but there ’ s a certain percentage of cycling followers who don ’ t like Remco Evenepoel because ‘ he ’ s too young ’, because ‘ he has a big mouth ’. And then there ’ s a certain group who adores him .” Much of it stems from last year ’ s Belgian performance at the Leuven World Championships , where Evenepoel was widely criticised for a hapless home team performance but was less than contrite . Belgians often baulked at Evenepoel ’ s brash personality , says Vandeweghe . But the young rider has changed in the past year , he says . “ He has become mature . He ’ s more at ease with himself , he knows what he can do . He ’ s an immense talent – we haven ’ t seen the end of it .” ●