Could Remco Race The Tour This Year? We’ll See.

Remco Evenepoel’s debut at the Tour de France would come in mid-summer 2024.

At least that’s what his Soudal Quick-Step team has been saying for some time now. After winning last year’s Vuelta and fulfilling so much of the promise and hype around him, the 23-year-old Belgian star set his sights on winning this year’s Giro. Given the amount of time trialing in la Corsa Rosa and the fact that Evenepoel is one of the strongest time trialists on Earth, it seemed like a fitting next step in filling out the young Belgian’s palmarès.

Then he would, in theory, round out his trifecta with a Tour de France victory sometime in the next few summers.

But, as we now know, that’s not at all what transpired over the last few days. After snatching the maglia rosa back from Team DSM’s Andreas Leknessund on Saturday, Remco Evenepoel abandoned his go at his second straight Grand Tour victory after contracting COVID-19.

And no sooner did the current World Champion fly back home did the questions arise as to whether or not he would be Soudal Quick-Step’s GC contender in this summer’s Tour de France.

Team manager Patrick Lefevere was quick to shut down any questions about Evenepoel’s immediate plans, telling the Belgian daily paper La Dernière Heure that he was “not going to talk about the Tour or the Vuelta. Once (Evenepoel) has recovered and once he has digested his disappointment, we’ll sit down around a table and draw up a program.”

Heading into the Giro, Evenepoel’s summer plans were predominantly focused on training for the Glasgow World Championships in August, where he will try to defend the rainbow bands. According to Belgian national team coach Sven Vanthourenhout, Evenepoel will also compete in the time trial.

But suddenly, what happens between now and then remains to be seen.

Does Evenepoel take a stab at Le Tour, even if it is on short notice (as of this writing, we’re less than fifty days away for the Grand Départ)? Not to mention however long it’ll take him to recover from COVID.

Then there is the question of his team’s plans. Soudal Quick-Step has never been known as a GC team as much as they were always constructed to compete for one-day races and stage wins. That was all supposed to change with the emergence of Evenepoel. And with last year’s Vuelta win, it did to an extent.

Despite a few chinks in the armor in the first week of this year’s Giro, Evenepoel often looked every bit the rider he was billed to be coming into this year’s race. So you have to wonder, does that entice him enough to go for the Tour? Does it do the same for Lefevere? Even if both men go into the Tour realizing there’s little-to-no chance of winning, is it worth testing Evenepoel against the likes of Jonas Vingegaard and Tadej Pogačar, to see what the future might hold? Maybe.

But for now, as we’re only two days removed from Evenepoel’s abandonment of the Grand Tour that was supposed to be his, details are scarce. And Patrick Lefevere is not playing his hand.

“The Tour team has not been decided yet, except for a few names,” the Soudal Quick-Step boss told Het Nieuwsblad on Monday. “The whole team around Remco is currently still at the Giro. He’ll recover first and then we’ll sit down together quietly, with Remco’s father too. If Remco calls and says, ‘I absolutely want to go to the Tour,’ then it’s something else.”

You Might Also Like

• The Right Chain Lube Can Save You Thousands

• Everything You Need to Start E-Bike Commuting

• 7 Things You Should Do After Every Rainy Ride