Remco Evenepoel, author of a crazy summer buoyed by an Olympic gold double in the wake of a 3rd place in the Tour de France, which he discovered, will be at the start in Bergamo. He returns once again to the city in Europe most damaged by the Covid pandemic because he still has a score to settle with this race since his terrible fall on August 15, 2020. Tadej Pogacar will also start. He intends to finish this year as he did it: as an unbeatable phenomenon, whose excesses of brilliant stupidity have led him to the craziest exploits between an 80-mile solo at the Strade Bianche, a world coronation after an attack at 100 kilometers from the finish and, obviously, a Giro-Tour double that no one had achieved since Marco Pantani, in 1998, the year he was born.
While many have already drawn a line under this exercise, Remco Evenepoel intends to try one last time to make life difficult for Tadej Pogacar. Those who have dreamed since their advent of a real mano a mano between the two monsters remain unsatisfied until now. The fault, first of all, was the absence of Brabançon during Liège-Bastogne-Liège, three weeks after breaking his collarbone and ribs in a descent in the Basque Country.
The fault, too, of the madness of Pogui who went on the attack a hundred miles from the finish at the World Championships in Zurich, a fortnight ago.
While no more rain is forecast on the roads and other Lombard slides, we dare to believe in a final exciting chapter before closing the book on this year 2024.
gullIt seems difficult to me to go for victory.
Remco Evenepoel, however, does not have too many illusions. “I feel like I’m tired. I no longer have the same level as during the Olympic Gamesexplains the man who admitted at the beginning of the week that he was starting to feel a certain physical weariness. Since my fall around the Basque Country (early April)I kept chasing time in order to be ready for the big deadlines to come. It cost me a lot of energy and I’m paying for it today. But I hope I still have enough left to get a good result, even if it seems difficult to go for victory. As it is a long race, I will have to make sure to spare myself in order to keep fresh for the last twenty-five kilometers.”
Olympic Games 2024 – Cycling: Remco Evenepoel double Olympic champion and already in the pantheon of Belgian sport
Despite this mental and physical fatigue, the double Olympic champion never questioned his participation in his… first Monument of the year. “The plan was for me to also be in Liège-Bastogne-Liège but I crashed before”he recalls.
If he has always been certain of his presence in Lombardy, it is also because Evenepoel loves this classic more than anything and he will meet Sormano for the first time since his terrible accident four years ago. Even if the route where he smashed his pelvis in a ravine will be approached in the opposite direction, the moment is likely to be special for him. It remains that it qualifies the analysis. “Last year, the day after the Tour of Lombardy, I went with Oumi to the place where I fellhe said. It allowed me to analyze, to understand… And to turn the knob.”
gullPassing the place of the fall on my golden bike allowed me to realize how far I had come.
And when he went to do the race recce midweek, he even enjoyed the moment. “Passing by this place on my golden bike allowed me to realize how far I have come since my fall. I really had good feelings. Sormano is no longer a problem for me. This fall is part of my story and it helped make me the runner I am today.”
gullIf I can, I will be leaving for Milan-Sanremo in 2025.
After his very last race of the year, the 24-year-old Brabançon will be able to rest and think about his future. “Doing the Flandrian classics next year does not seem compatible with my goals. I will do them one day, but not now. On the other hand, if I can, I will be at the start of Milan-Sanremo.”
“In 2025, Remco could double Giro and Tour”: Patrick Lefevere discusses Evenepoel’s calendar after his world title
Which tends to confirm what Patrick Lefevere revealed in these columns during the Worlds, namely that the double Olympic champion should double the Giro-Tour in 2025.
