A sensational Remco Evenepoel dominated the cycling road race at the Paris 2024 Olympics to secure a historic double on Saturday, exactly seven days after his victory in the time trial. An unprecedented double gold medal at the Olympic Games for the Belgian, who arrived solo at the Trocadéro after 270 kilometers of racing. The Frenchmen Madouas and Christophe Laporte complete the podium and offer two additional medals to France.
Already on the offensive at 72km and then 67km from the finish during this atypical race (only 90 riders at the start, no earpieces), Remco Evenepoel placed his decisive attack 38 kilometres from the finish when the bodies had just been shaken by a violent attack from Mathieu Van der Poel.
The Dutch favourite had the cards in hand to play for victory but was perfectly silenced by Wout van Aertuncompromising in the wheel of his great rival on the various climbs of the Butte Montmartre, the main difficulty of the day.
Evenepoel took advantage of the rivalry between the two men to plant a masterful counterattack that he has the secret of and to which no one was able to respond. Suffocated by the efforts, the riders who had tried to anticipate saw a cannonball come back in their wake. The phenomenon from Schepdaal then began the undermining work to eliminate his rivals. The last to let go will be the Frenchman Valentin Madouas 15 km from the goal.
Arriving solo in front of the Trocadéro, Evenepoel suffered a final scare in the last 5 kilometres with a puncture that made the entire Belgian people sweat. A setback that would not get the better of the Belgian champion, who won by upgrading to the point of having had time to get off his bike to take an iconic photo under the Eiffel Tower.
Evenepoel, aged just 24, is the third Belgian to be crowned Olympic champion after Andre Noyelle in 1952 and Greg Van Avermaet in 2016 in Rio.
This is the 4th Belgian medal in these Olympic Games after the success of the same Evenepoel and the bronze of Wout van Aert in the time trial and the bronze medal of Gabriella Willems in judo.
