Forget an absent Tadej Pogačar, here are 4 reasons why Remco Evenepoel will win the 2026 World Championship

Of course, it’s a bit obvious to mention the route, but can it be avoided? Certainly not. For a long time, it wasn’t clear what kind of rider Remco Evenepoel would become. His talent was undeniable, but was he a stage racer or a classics specialist? It’s strange to say, with an overall victory in the Vuelta a España and a second-place finish at the Tour de France under his belt, but we’re leaning more toward the latter.

And especially when you consider how much he’s improved over the past two years. The 26-year-old Belgian has become much more explosive since his WorldTour debut. Just look at how he beat Wout van Aert in the Brabantse Pijl, or his sprints in this year’s Tour. Moreover, he often struggles more when the climbs are a bit longer.

The Côte Camillien-Houde (the World Championship’s decisive climb) is 1.6 kilometers long with a 7.7 percent gradient, and with those stats, it would fit right into the Amstel Gold Race. As it happens, Evenepoel just claimed victory there this season. Of course, he struggled a bit more on that climb during the GP Montréal, but he attributed it to having an off day. Moreover, he was still unstoppable on the flat sections.

Huh, jet lag? An advantage? Well, let us explain. It’s been a long time since Evenepoel has had to deal with jet lag like this. Seven years ago, he rode in the Canadian one-day races for the first—and last—time. But in 2022, he raced the World Cycling Championships in Australia. The result? A sensational world title in the road race.

Back then, the time difference with Europe was eight hours; now it’s “only” six. And at that time, he had just finished the Vuelta a España, which he had won. Now, the Belgian has had more time to acclimatise.

In Australia, he missed out on the world time trial title, but that race was just one week after the Vuelta and four days after his arrival in Wollongong. This time, he arrived on September 9, eleven days before the time trial and nearly three weeks before the road race.

A good build-up to the World Championships is just as important—if not more so—than the race itself. It’s always a bit of a guess, but by now Evenepoel knows what he needs. Some riders prefer to have few races leading up to their peak, while others prefer many. But for Evenepoel, it doesn’t seem to make much difference.

When he won the world title in 2022, he had just completed three weeks of gruelling racing, with its ups and downs. But there was no sign of exhaustion. And in recent years, he consistently chose to race at the Tour of Britain. With six days of racing under his belt, he headed to the world championships. When he became an Olympic champion, he had, of course, already completed the entire Tour de France.

So why should things go well now, when he’s only had two days of racing in September? Two reasons. First, let’s go back to 2019, when he raced in the Canadian one-day races. Back then, he finished second at the World Time Trial Championships, ten days after the GP Montréal. That included a long flight and jet lag in between. And with 67 days without racing, Evenepoel finished second in this year’s Tour. So a lack of race days? No problem.

So much has already been said and written about the partnership with Wout van Aert. Can you really have two team leaders, two rivals, on the same team? Two men who are determined to become world champions at any cost? The media are all too eager to make a mountain out of a molehill, because the two have been riding together for the national team for quite some time now.

In 2019, they raced together at a World Championship for the first time, without much success. In 2021, they also failed to achieve a result on home soil, but Wollongong provided the blueprint for this year. Evenepoel launched a long attack, and Van Aert was able to neutralise it from behind. The same thing happened during the Olympic Games in Paris. Every time they ride together, it seems to work out in favour of the younger of the two.

What’s more, Belgium has the strongest team of them all—and by a wide margin. With Alec Segaert and Tiesj Benoot, they have two pacemakers who can keep up for a long time, and Quinten Hermans and Thibau Nys are there for the final sprint. An added advantage for Evenepoel is the presence of his friends Gianni Vermeersch and Maxim Van Gils, teammates at Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe. They’ll give it their all for their team leader, without a doubt.