Vuelta winner Remco Evenepoel thwarts the curse of the “new Merckx”

For forty years, the label has ruined careers and shattered a few lives, following a relentless cycle: each promising new Belgian champion was snatched from the basket, praised, blessed and then thrown to the ground at the first sign of weakness, by a press and an audience. cycling enthusiasts. Until Remco Evenepoel, 22, on Sunday became the first Belgian rider since 1978 to win a three-week event, the Tour of Spain. And above all the first to survive, at least so far, the label of “new Merckx”.