Lefevere and Wuyts no longer see Evenepoel as a true Grand Tour rider: “He should have been in Sanremo”

Lefevere drew a comparison with a former rider from his own team. “I had a good example in my own squad: Sylvain Chavanel, the Frenchman,” he told Het Laatste Nieuws. “He was supposed to be the next big thing. He had to win the Tour. Turned pro at twenty. He tried. He once finished top ten, but what did he really win? In truth, Sylvain was a one-day rider. Maybe that will later prove to be the case with Remco as well.”

The last time Evenepoel won a WorldTour stage race was the 2022 Vuelta a España. Since then, he has still collected major victories, including Liège-Bastogne-Liège, the road world title, the Olympic road race and Brabantse Pijl, which only fuels the argument that one-day racing may be the terrain that suits him best. Lefevere was clear about that. “Personally, I think Remco should have been in Milan-Sanremo, and he should also have ridden the Tour of Flanders or E3.”

At the same time, Lefevere knows his former protégé is not easily persuaded. Evenepoel still badly wants to win the Tour de France. “I told him once or twice, but well... he is so focused on it — and you have to be, if you want to perform. Yes, he won the Vuelta. But there are still two others riding around. I saw Jonas Vingegaard in Paris-Nice. I wish him good luck.”

Michel Wuyts agrees with Lefevere and believes Evenepoel would be better used as a classics specialist. “I’ve been told a few times that he is now on the reserve list for the Tour of Flanders. And that his deployability there will depend heavily on the weather. I hope it happens sooner rather than later.”

Lefevere, however, does not expect a quick change of direction. “He has time. He is only 26 now. If he gives himself another two years to try to win the Tour... although, if everyone stays healthy, I think he and Vingegaard will make that a very difficult issue. And now he also has competition inside his own team. He didn’t have that before.”

That internal competition comes in the shape of Florian Lipowitz. Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe now have the rider who finished third in last year’s Tour de France, and the German is from the same generation as his new teammate. Wuyts believes that partly explains why Evenepoel came into this season so aggressively. “That’s also why he started the year like a comet,” he said. “He absolutely blew them away in Valencia.”

But when the road turned properly uphill later on, Evenepoel once again struggled. Lefevere pointed to his UAE Tour difficulties. “In the UAE Tour he cracked on two uphill finishes,” he said. “And I know why. That can happen — one or two kilos too many. If you can take two kilos off in professional cycling, that is enormous.”