Belgian rider Remco Evenepoel, crowned with two Olympic gold medals, will return to action on Tuesday at the start of the Tour of Britain, alongside his French teammate Julian Alaphilippe, a former winner of the event.
The two headliners from the Soudal Quick-Step team provide increased exposure to the British race, scheduled from Tuesday to Sunday over some 940km and which will also feature local Tom Pidcock.
They will take over the media and sporting relay from Wout Van Aert, the Belgian winner of the previous edition who is competing this season in the Tour of Spain.
The hundred or so riders, divided into eighteen teams, will set off on Tuesday morning from Kelso, a small town in the south-east of Scotland, for the first of six stages, also the longest (181.9 km).
All eyes will inevitably be on Evenepoel, one of the heroes of the Olympic Games, who in Paris achieved an unprecedented double in the history of men’s cycling, the time trial and the road race.
“My last racing period was very special for me and I enjoyed being able to recharge my batteries a bit afterwards, but it’s time to put on a bib again as I look forward to the big races this autumn,” said the 24-year-old Flemish.
– Pidcock at home –
This will be one of his last associations with Alaphilippe, since the double French world champion (2020 and 2021) will join the Swiss team Tudor Pro Cycling at the end of the season.
Unlike Evenepoel, “Alaf” knows the Tour of Britain well, having won it in 2018 before taking third place on the podium three years later, in 2021, during his last appearance.
The start list also includes the British Tom Pidcock (Ineos Grenadiers), Olympic gold medallist in mountain biking this summer, and the Australian Damien Howson (Q36.5), third in the last “Tour of Britain”.
The 2024 edition route ends on Sunday in Felixstowe, a port city in Suffolk, a county in the east of England.
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