Cycling
Remco Evenepoel starts the season in Portugal on Saturday, which this year is all about the Tour.
On Saturday Evenepoel will ride the one-day race Figueira Champions Classic, from Wednesday the real work starts with the Tour of the Algarve. In his previous participations in 2020 and 2022, he won the final classification twice. “My experience shows that the Tour of the Algarve has all the facets that you need to master as a tour rider,” he says during a press moment. “There are flat stages, hilly stages such as Malhao, the half-mountain stage to Foia and then there is the time trial.”
In the Portuguese races, Evenepoel also wants to continue building up his fitness towards Paris-Nice, a race that he previously called “his first really big goal”. The world champion started his training a little later this year. After a tough year in 2023 – physically but certainly also mentally – he stayed off the bike for five weeks. “That long break really did me good,” he says. “I started training again with great enthusiasm and immediately started my training and nutrition schedule. I feel like I may have had my best winter ever. I hope I can continue to build on that in Portugal.”
The Algarve is the first stop in a first half of the season that is steadily building up to the Tour via Paris-Nice, the Ardennes, altitude training and the Dauphiné. Evenepoel was asked what he wanted to achieve above all this season. His answer: “I hope to be on the podium in Nice (where the Tour ends, ed.).” A much more explicit ambition than at the press day of Soudal – Quick Step at the beginning of January. He stopped there: “Try to win a stage and maybe wear the yellow jersey for once.”jpdv)
