Remco Evenepoel celebrated his second Olympic Games gold medal late into the night in Paris, enjoying some fries and mayonnaise, dancing to techno music and taking part in lots of celebrations with family, friends and his teammates.
After crossing the finish line in the shade of the Eiffel Tower, posing with his bike and then ‘dialling in’ a victory gesture, Evenepoel shed a tear as the Belgian anthem rang out during the medal ceremony, perhaps suddenly understanding what he had achieved. Evenepoel also posed for a special photograph with his two gold medals and with his wife Oumi, who had brought his time trial gold medal from Belgium for a historic moment.
Following a series of media obligations, Evenepoel was celebrated by fellow Belgian athletes on his return to the Olympic Village. He and his teammates were then special hosts of the Sporza evening sport chat show, ‘Paris by Night’, where they recalled the key moments of the race.
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The riders then travelled onto the Belgium Olympic House for further media obligations and celebrations, with Evenepoel entering to huge cheers wearing his two gold medals. He finally managed to meet his parents, who had seen the end of the road race in a restaurant near the Eiffel Tower.
Evenepoel doesn’t drink and so enjoyed a cone of Belgian fries, covered in mayonnaise, while waiting for an interview to begin.
After midnight, he danced with DJs Average Rob and Hebben Het Kan when they played their ‘Belgium anthem’ song called ‘On Met La Patate’, which combines Dutch with French and roughly translated means ’Let's go for it’. Evenepoel danced some more on stage at the Belgium house, and posted a video on his social media on Sunday.
His father Patrick revealed that the celebrations went until 2:00 a.m., and then Evenepoel seemed to enjoy a quiet morning. There will surely be some kind of celebration on Evenepoel's return to Belgium but he is also ready for some time to savour his achievements and relax.
"The batteries are slowly starting to run out," Evenepoel said on Saturday night to the Flemish media.
"I'm really going to use the coming week to recover. My phone will be off and my eyes closed as much as possible. I really want to do nothing for once. I’ll perhaps go somewhere, but I don't know where yet but it’ll be as soon as possible."
Next weekend Evenepoel will attend his already arranged RE.V fan ride near his home in Schepdaal, to the southwest of Brussels on Saturday, August 10. Thousands of people are now expected to take part.
“He has to be back then, that’s the most important race of the year,” his father joked.
Soudal-QuickStep team manager Patrick Lefevere has indicated that Evenepoel will return to racing at the Tour of Britain in early September. The race organisers told Cyclingnews they would be happy to welcome the Belgian and mountain bike gold medalist Tom Pidcock. However, the final teams and lineup have still to be confirmed.
Evenepoel could decide to target the Road World Championships in Zurich in late September and then ride the end of season Italian Classics.
"That's coming up in almost two months but it’ll be here soon,” Evenepoel explained. “Fortunately, I can go into a short rest period in good shape, then it's always easier to build up again afterwards. First, it's time to celebrate and relax.”
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