On that roadmap, after racing the UAE Tour, Evenepoel will undertake a long altitude camp before returning to competition at the end of March at the Volta a Catalunya. As for the Classics, his presence will be limited to the Ardennes, ruling out any debut at La Classicissima or an appearance on the Flemish cobbles.
First back-up
The debate comes amid a superb start to the year. Evenepoel has notched five individual wins and a team time trial in just eight days of racing, and he also claimed the Trofeo Serra de Tramuntana and the Trofeo Andratx at the Challenge Mallorca, events later added to his schedule and won with full authority.
Remco Evenepoel is already shining in Red Bull – BORA – hansgrohe
Red Bull keeping everything under control
Even so, Lodewyck played down fears that the Belgian is peaking too early into the season in which he’s once again scheduled for the Tour de France. “If he hadn’t raced here, he would have been training hard. It’s good we started by competing. We can keep building on this base,” he explained.
He also noted that Evenepoel has yet to complete a specific altitude training block, so he believes there is still room for improvement. “He’s where he needs to be without crossing the limit,” he concluded.
With all that, the main focus of the season will remain the Tour, where Evenepoel will look to improve on the third place achieved on debut in 2024. With that in mind, the Olympic champion’s calendar would ideally remain as compact as possible with only the necessary check-point races spread out evenly before summer. Red Bull would prefer a Tour victory over 20+ smaller wins from Remco in his debut season after all.