Following Pogačar and Vingegaard, the Giro d'Italia hopes to lure another superstar for 2027: 'An idea, a scenario, a possibility'

Evenepoel had skipped the Giro d'Italia in recent years, as his focus was on the Tour de France. He made his Tour de France debut in 2024 with a third-place finish, but a year later he withdrew, exhausted.

This year, in his third appearance, he was stronger than ever and finished second behind the unbeatable Tadej Pogačar. Pogacar is expected to be back in 2027, in his quest for his sixth overall victory.

Jonas Vingegaard and Visma | Lease a Bike will also make the 2027 Tour a major goal, now that the Danish team leader has won all the Grand Tours and has already indicated that winning both the Giro and the Tour in a single season was quite a feat. Anyone who wants to challenge Pogačar seems to have to stake everything on a single race.

In any case, it seems that Evenepoel won’t be putting all his efforts into the Tour de France in 2027, if we are to believe the usually reliable La Gazzetta. The Belgian wants to return to the Giro, a race he has already competed in in 2021 and 2023.

In 2021, an Evenepoel who was still relatively inexperienced at the time was clearly not yet ready to compete for stage wins or a place in the general classification, and he withdrew after a crash. In 2023, he was dominant with two stage wins, but he had to leave the Giro after testing positive for COVID-19.

Third time’s the charm? Evenepoel and Red Bull will certainly hope so, now that the team leader has taken a step forward as a stage racer in the Tour. After the race, he said in Paris that his career goal remains the same: to win all three Grand Tours. So far, only the 2022 Vuelta a España has been checked off the list.

"Evenepoel has expressed interest in returning to the Giro d'Italia," according to La Gazzetta. "For now, it's an idea, a scenario, a possibility: we'll know more in the coming months." However, the sports newspaper describes the line of thinking within the Evenepoel camp as “significant.”

"The Giro d'Italia is ready to welcome him with open arms," the report continues. The Tour of Italy saw somewhat one-sided editions in 2024 and 2026 with Pogačar and Vingegaard, but the Italian public loves nothing more than seeing the biggest stars in the peloton.

The 2025 edition was much more interesting from a racing perspective, with Simon Yates ultimately winning after a masterful battle with Isaac del Toro and Richard Carapaz. The big question is whether Evenepoel can be just as dominant as Vingegaard in 2026, or whether we’ll see the same kind of excitement as in 2025.

On Sunday, Evenepoel will first compete in the World Time Trial Championship.