Italy-France 34-1. If the route of the Tour of Italy, unveiled ten days ago in Milan, looked like a beautiful invitation card addressed to Remco Evenepoelthat of the Tour de France presented this Thursday in Paris is not far from the exclusion rating for the world champion.
Because he loves the Basque Country, whose roads he knows for having won the Clasica San Sebastian twice, I know that Remco Evenepoel is hesitating. Was hesitating? I even have the intimate conviction that with another time trial, in the first part of the event, as is often the tradition, he would have been very tempted to come.
We cannot say today that Remco will be absent from the next Grande Boucle. A lot can happen between now and then. But, let’s be frank, the chances of seeing him at the start are minimal. On the one hand a Giro which offers him three lap times for a total of more than 70 kilometres. On the other, a Tour which offers only one time trial of 22 kilometers. It’s almost a record.
As incredible as it may seem, Remco Evenepoel has only competed in one race in France since he turned professional in 2019. Only one day of racing on French soil. And again, it was a stopwatch. One of the worst of his young career. The Grand Prix des Nations on October 17, 2021 where he placed fifth.
In juniors in 2018, Evenepoel made three appearances in France. He won the Grand Prix des Nations and the Tour du Morbihan, a two-day stage race. Before that, Remco had finished Paris-Roubaix… out of time. Between France and Remco Evenepoel is therefore not (yet) a great love story.
On the other hand, between Italy and the new world champion, the links are much more emotional. Evenepoel triumphed there twice. He could also have lost his life.
In 2019, he won his first professional victory outside our borders, on the Ionica Race, a four-day stage race. If we only saw him on Tirreno-Adriatico (seven racing days) in 2022, he spent 22 of his 46 racing days there (almost half) in 2021. The Giro d’Italia, a resounding victory in the Coppa Bernocchi, silver and bronze medals at the European Championships in Trento, a fifth place in the Tour of Emilia and a nineteenth during his big comeback in the Tour of Lombardy.
Wout van Aert does not hide his love for Italy where he won his first major one-day race, the Strade Bianche, and his only monument, Milan-Sanremo. However, he only competed in one stage event, Tirreno Adriatico 2021, where he won two successes and for which he would have won the final classification if he had not come across a stratospheric Tadej Pogacar.
In France, what does he still have to prove? He won everything he could / wanted to win, except Paris-Roubaix. What additional motivation can the Tour de France 2023 give him? We will have to find a convincing answer to this question to see Wout van Aert in Bilbao, at the start of the Tour… which will suit him perfectly.