Remco Evenepoel revises pre-Tour plan: no racing before the Grand Départ in Barcelona

Remco Evenepoel had a packed spring, racing from January through to Liège-Bastogne-Liège in late April. With the Tour de France now firmly in his sights, the Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe rider has made a significant change to his pre-Tour programme: he will not race the Tour Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes.

Evenepoel was the star of the early spring, winning six times — including a team time trial — in his first eight race days of the season. A time trial win at the UAE Tour followed, though he could not challenge for the overall there. An admittedly difficult Volta a Catalunya came next, before the shift to the Classics.

At the Tour of Flanders, the 26-year-old showed his best form in a Monument, finishing third behind winner Tadej Pogačar and Mathieu van der Poel. He then won the Amstel Gold Race and started Liège-Bastogne-Liège as one of the three big favourites — but could not match Paul Seixas and Pogačar on La Redoute. He finished third again, at a respectable distance.

The ambition for Evenepoel and Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe has not changed: win the Tour de France. The team signed the Belgian with that singular goal in mind. In July he will share leadership with Florian Lipowitz, and the original plan had him racing the Tour Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes — the race formerly known as the Critérium du Dauphiné — as his final warm-up.

That plan has changed. The reigning world time trial champion will arrive at the Grand Départ in Barcelona without a race in the weeks beforehand. "Together with Remco we decided to build in a rest period after an intensive spring," Chief of Sports Zak Dempster said in a team statement. "The goal is to arrive completely fresh in Barcelona. After analysing his 25 race days, we see a greater advantage in a balanced, alternative programme than in adding more racing."

It is a notable decision. In the build-up to both of his previous Tour starts, Evenepoel had always raced the Dauphiné. That seemed to work well enough: the first time produced a third place overall in Paris; last year he was forced to abandon after two weeks, though that was the result of a crash at the Belgian road championships rather than any lack of preparation. Now, with no race on the calendar before the Tour, Evenepoel will instead head to a May altitude camp and focus on targeted training towards July.

Lipowitz, the team's other leader, will still race his way into Tour condition — just not in France or at the Tour of Switzerland. The German climber, who finished second at the Tour de Romandie last week behind Tadej Pogačar, has chosen the Tour of Slovenia as his final race before the Tour.

"Florian has been enormously consistent across his last three stage races," Dempster said. "We have achieved the desired performance stimulus from his spring, and more importantly, he has built a lot of confidence in the path we have mapped out together. We will continue along that path, with patience and consistency over the coming two months." Lipowitz will join Evenepoel at altitude camp in May before both turn their focus fully to the Tour.