This coronation, it is an understatement to say that it was expected. Remco Evenepoel wins the Vuelta, and the flat country can finally celebrate the victory of a Belgian on a Grand Tour for the first time since 1978 (read below). At the age of 22, the young Remco is once again raising Belgian cycling to the top, and it could only be him, the child prodigy to whom an entire nation has promised the intoxication of the peaks since his beginnings. Because this is how the short story of Remco Evenepoel could be told: a comet programmed for glory. However, its trajectory is not quite straight.
Remco is certainly the son of a cyclist. His father Patrick did a few laps in the professional world in the 1990s. But small gear (113e on the 1993 Vuelta). And especially frightened by an environment then doped with EPO. For the son, it will therefore be rather football. And very early, from 5 years old, with the purple jersey of Anderlecht. The kid sees himself as a guardian. But he stands out for his endurance. He will therefore be a left midfielder, performing to the point of joining, between the ages of 11 and 14, PSV Eindhoven in a host family in the Netherlands, before returning to Anderlecht and a few selections in the national youth teams where he is sometimes captain. .
From football to cycling in a flash
Future mapped out? Not quite. The player has many qualities, but he lacks explosiveness for the trainers of Anderlecht. At 17, Remco Evenepoel joined FC Mechelen, but his heart was no longer there. Anderlecht has it “mentally broken”, he will explain later. As, for a long time, he has supplemented his training with bike rides, he decides to give up the crampons to get into the saddle. Conciliatory, his parents concede. Good for them.
On April 2, 2017, with a one-day license, the rookie runner tackles his first race, finishing at 71e square. But as of the second one week later, a provincial championship time trial, he is 10e. The little guy learns quickly. Here he is recruited in an amateur team. The rocket can take off. The launch pad will be the Junior Worlds in Innsbruck in 2018. He crushes the competition against the clock, finishes alone in the road race and crosses the finish line on foot, raising his bike above his head. Too strong, the Remco. The image is stunning.
It’s only a beginning. “With cycling, you need a lot more mental strength and perseverance”, proclaims the former footballer. Perfect. It overflows from both. As proof, his first professional year in 2019 in the Belgian Quick Step team of Julian Alaphilippe. He immediately surprised by triumphing in the San Sebastian Classic, becoming the youngest winner of a World Tour race at 19 years and 7 months, before, a few months later, finishing second in the time trial of the championships. of the world in the UK. Not bad for a rookie, elected “Belgian sportsman of the year” in stride.
An already remarkable maturity
2020 starts on the same bases. Except that. It is not the Covid that breaks the momentum, but a terrible fall on the Tour of Lombardy. An over-enthusiastic descent, a frightening sun and the champion goes over the parapet of a bridge. The story could have ended there. The report shows a broken pelvis and multiple contusions, which will keep him out of the circuit for two hundred and sixty-seven days.
Since then, the Belgian with the thwarted destiny plays the death of starvation. On the Giro in 2021, a new fall of much less gravity however forced him to retire four days from the end. Among the commentators, doubt settles on his ability to shine on long-term events. Remco Evenepoel cashes in and says he has a fierce appetite at the start of the 2022 season. He is in fact eating the San Sebastian Classic and, above all, Liège-Bastogne-Liège. But bragging before the Tour de Suisse last June, he had to fall back, 11e only. It prevents. Absent from the Tour de France, he displays the color on the Vuelta, the main objective of his season: the red of the leader’s jersey.
Very quickly the reservations expressed fall away. Takeover on the 6e stage with arrival at the top, rivals pushed back further on the 10th stage against the clock, limited breakage on the highest perched days, the Belgian still being crumbly when there is a lack of oxygen, and thrust carried as a boss four days before the arrival. So of course, the fall and abandonment of a Primoz Roglic capable of tickling him arranged his affairs well. But Remco Evenepoel has demonstrated a maturity that some did not yet grant him. And all of Belgium to suddenly resume the comparison with the giant Eddy Merckx. “Little cannibal”, Remco Evenepoel. The nickname weighs a tad on the heir. And yet, from the beginning, he only thinks about that: eat everything.
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Belgian cycling regains color
The last Belgian winner of a Grand Tour was him: Johan De Muynck, Flemish ahead of the 1978 Giro the Italians Gianbattista Baronchelli and Francesco Moser. A feat without a great future, the rider only distinguishing himself by a fourth place in 1980 on the Tour de France.
Since then, the flat country has been in despair for a long time, especially enthusiastic about one-day champions, kings of the classics like Philippe Gilbert (Liège-Bastogne-Liège, Flèche wallonne, Amstel Gold Race and Classic San Sebastian in 2011, Paris -Roubaix in 2019) or Tom Boonen (quadruple winner of Paris-Roubaix).
But now is the time for a bright future: with Remco Evenepoel, in red, therefore, on this Vuelta, and the overpowering Wout van Aert, in green on the last Tour de France, Belgium holds a shock tandem. Tomorrow, in yellow?
