Remco Evenepoel might not reclaim the Vélo d'Or award he earned two years ago when the ceremony reflecting on the 2024 season takes place next month, on December 6; such was the historic form Tadej Pogačar enjoyed that it would take a seriously eccentric decision from the voters to choose anyone other than the Slovenian. However, one award Evenepoel has retained from 2022 is the Flandrian of the Year, the prestigious prize handed out by the newspaper Het Nieuwsblad each year to one rider from the always-competitive field of Belgian riders.
That award was announced by Het Nieuwsblad on Tuesday at a ceremony in Middelkerke and testifies to just how good a 2024 season he had. The first of his nine wins from the season came on his very first day of racing at the Figueira Champions Classic, after which he honed his stage racing form with overall victory at Volta ao Algarve and second overall at Paris-Nice, where a final day stage win was not quite enough to take overall victory from Matteo Jorgenson (Visma-Lease a Bike).
Disaster seemed to strike during his next racing appearance at Itzulia Basque Country, where he was one of the many big names to fall and hurt himself badly in the season-shaping crash on stage four. But he was back racing again at Critérium du Dauphiné two months later, where he built enough form to peak in time for the Tour de France, claiming a very impressive third place overall behind Pogačar and Jonas Vingegaard, plus a stage win at the opening week time trial.
Then came the Olympics. This was arguably the finest week of Evenepoel’s career to date, as he followed time trial gold with another in the road race, becoming the first man in history to win both at the same Olympic Games. More success was to come representing Belgium in the autumn, where he retained his time trial title at the World Championships, while he ended the season still in great shape, finishing runner-up at Il Lombardia behind only an unstoppable Pogačar.
With his palmarès so widely expanded and so many big achievements managed, what’s next for Evenepoel in 2025? The Belgian used his post-award interview with Het Nieuwsblad to outline some of his plans. Another crack at the Tour de France following this year’s successful debut is a certainty, while he described Liège–Bastogne–Liège, a race he has already won twice, as a race he would “never skip”. Meanwhile, the cobbled Monuments of Paris-Roubaix and the Tour of Flanders are not on his agenda, no doubt disappointing fans eager to see how he can go on the cobbles.
Aside from that, though, he’s leaving his options open for now. He intends to ride one of the other Grand Tours as well at the Tour de France but has not decided which one of the Giro d’Italia or the Vuelta a España it will be yet — perhaps waiting for the routes to be announced. Milan-Sanremo was also listed as a maybe, depending on whether he chooses to ride either Paris-Nice or Tirreno-Adriatico before it, while appearances at Amstel Gold Race and La Flèche Wallonne will similarly hinge on whether or not he rides the Giro.
The impression you get from Evenepoel’s plans is that, much like his rival Tadej Pogačar, he is a rider who wants to build a complete, wide-ranging palmarès. He’s not interested in focussing on the same narrow goals every year but wants to keep expanding and target the major races he has not yet won. “Everyone knows that my remaining goals are to win the Giro and Tour,” he explained, “so I want to invest fully in that.” Having last year won both Olympic titles, in addition to the Vuelta Grand Tour title, Liège–Bastogne–Liège Monument title and Worlds road race title he’d previously won, the next logical step up in terms of major races missing for him to target are those two stated races, the Tour and the Giro.
The problem for Evenepoel is that there’s a clear reason why he hasn’t been able to win those races: the quality of the opposition. And one man in particular: Tadej Pogačar. The gulf currently between the two was made clear at the Tour de France, where even arguably the best form of the Belgian’s career was only enough for him to finish a distant 9:18 adrift from him on GC. Maybe Pogačar won’t attempt another Giro/Tour double next season, leaving a clearer path to victory for Evenepoel at the former should he choose to ride it. But if he is to win the Tour de France, he’s somehow going to have to find a way to defeat him.
Ever the eager competitor, rather than daunted by this prospect, Evenepoel sounds as though he relishes it. “I’m not going to adjust my program to Tadej,” he insisted. “I actually really like racing against Pogačar. Besides being a great champion, he’s also just a good guy. I think it's an honour to compete against him and to be able to race with him. I see it as a challenge to try to beat him.”
He also believes himself capable of getting the better of Pogačar, observing how he’s “already won races in which he was at the start”, and how he hopes that “next season there will be one of those again every now and then”. In particular, he takes encouragement from a perhaps forgotten moment from the Tour de France this year in which he managed to successfully drop Pogačar during stage 17. The stage win had already disappeared up to the road, claimed by Richard Carapaz from the break, but Evenepoel attacked on the final 3.8km rise to the finish, with neither Pogačar nor Jonas Vingegaard following him. He eventually made it to the finish, gaining 10 seconds on the former and 12 on the latter.
“I was really good, but I was afraid to make a move,” Evenepoel reminisced. “I saw that they didn’t react and thought: what is this? I had a kind of panic: should I continue now or build in a reserve? That day, I could have done more. If I get into that situation next year, then I know I have to give everything.”
With this kind of attitude, capitalising on small moments to take encouragement from, it’s clear Evenepoel won’t shy away from a fight with Pogačar next year. The gulf between them might have been big in 2024, but we can perhaps anticipate some closely-fought battles between them in the coming season.
