Evenepoel records massive Alpine ride ahead of the 2026 Tour de France: 'TDF 2026 D-12'

We haven’t seen him race in a while, but fans needn’t worry: Remco Evenepoel is certainly not sitting idle in the run-up to the 2026 Tour de France. The Belgian rider from Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe completed another substantial training ride in the Alps on Monday, though, interestingly enough, he didn’t tackle any of the mountain passes included in the 2026 Tour.

Of all the general classification contenders we’ll see in action during this Tour de France, Evenepoel has opted for what is arguably the most remarkable preparation. The Belgian made his debut this year in the Tour of Flanders and went on to win the Amstel Gold Race, but Liège–Bastogne–Liège, on April 26, was his last race of the year so far.

Evenepoel decided to focus entirely on high-altitude training in preparation for the Tour de France. That meant there was no room for a detour to a preparatory race, as many of his competitors did. Tadej Pogacar, for example, won both the Tour de Romandie and the Tour de Suisse. And in some style.

So the Belgian Red Bull rider opted for a different approach, but he was anything but idle. Even this week—the last full week before the Tour de France—Evenepoel is still training hard. We saw that on Strava, where the rider from Aalst completed a very challenging training ride.

196 kilometers: that was the length of Monday’s ride. With 5,045 meters of elevation gain, it was certainly no easy ride, as the average speed of 30.5 kilometers per hour also shows that the pace was quite fast. Total ride time on Monday? 6 hours and 25 minutes.

If you look a little more closely, you’ll see that Evenepoel tackled four Alpine passes on Monday. Remarkably, not a single one of those climbs is included in the route of the upcoming Tour de France. Not the Col de Pierre Carrée, not the Col de la Colombière, not the Col de la Croix Fry, and not the Col des Saisies.