Remco Evenepoel (QuickStep-AlphaVinyl) has already decided whether he will race the Giro d’Italia or the Tour de France in 2023 but will not reveal his Grand Tour choice until the New Year.
“I’ve made up my mind,” Evenepoel told Het Nieuwsblad, “but the decision won’t be announced until next January. I can simply say I’m happy with my race program, calm at the start but gets more and more intense. The opposite to this year, in some ways.”
Evenepoel was speaking after he was voted Flandrien of the Year, another top Belgian cycling award after the Kristallen Fiets prize he won last week. Lotte Kopecky (SD Worx) was equally successful in both awards, taking the equivalent women’s category prize after winning the Kristallen Fiets.
This is the first time that Evenepoel has received the Flandrien of the Year award, which he took ahead of Wout van Aert (Jumbo-Visma) and Arnaud De Lie (Lotto Soudal).
Evenepoel has hinted he would ride the Giro d'Italia and the 2023 Corsa Rosa includes 70.6km of time trials. However he is also hungry to take on his Grand Tour rivals in France and news team sposo Soudal is keen to see him in the sport's biggest race next July.
Evenepoel had said earlier this year that his sole regret race-wise about 2022 was not taking part in Milano-San Remo but he told Het Nieuwsblad it has yet to be decided if the Italian Monument will form part of his 2023 race programme.
“That weekend is still unclear,” he said, “but it would be nice if I could take part in it.”
After racing a total of 68 days in 2022, Evenepoel emphasised he would prioritise quality over quantity in 2023.
Evenepoel also provided a few more emotions and thoughts on his incredibly 2022 campaign, saying that “from a purely physical point of view, my solo attack in San Sebastián was the most powerful.”
He won Basque Classic for a second time in his career with a 45-kilometre lone breakaway.
"What has really surprised me has been how I could hold my top form from the end of July through to the end of September," he explained.
"During all that time, I only had one bad day, [on stage 14 of the Vuelta when he all but cracked on the ascent of the Pandera - Ed.] and that was after a crash.”
Evenepoel explained that he and the team had learned from their mistakes made during the Tour de Suisse.
"The lesson for the Vuelta a España was to prepare much more specifically and to be much fresher at the start," he said.
"That worked very well then. The plan now is to copy that preparation for each Grand Tour.”
Asked if by Het Nieuwsblad if he needed an enemy - real or imaginary - to bring out the best in him, as has recently emerged to be the case for former professional basketball player Michael Jordan during his career, Evenepoel said he finds his own motivation.
“I get my motivation from concrete goals, not from an image of an enemy. I think cycling doesn't seem like the right sport to think in those terms."
"The cycling peloton is a small environment in which you constantly encounter each other. Better make as many friends as possible and as few enemies as possible.”
