Remco Evenepoel received Belgium’s National Trophy for Sports Merit in Brussels on Wednesday for his achievements in 2022 but his attention is already turning to the new season, which gets underway at the Vuelta a San Juan in a little under a month’s time.
The world champion’s decision to race the Giro d’Italia in 2023 means that he must wait a little longer to duel with Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates) at a Grand Tour, but he hinted that they might face off as soon as February at the UAE Tour.
“That is indeed the plan at the moment, but it’s not yet completely certain,” Evenepoel said, according to Het Nieuwsblad. “The Volta ao Algarve also has some nice time trials, so that could also be an option.
"It would be good to compete with Tadej on a race where he has already won twice. He will be in top form there anyway, because for his team it’s kind of like the World Championships. We’re still looking at what the best option is. For now, only San Juan, Liège and the Giro are already 100% certain.”
The Soudal-QuickStep rider said that his pre-Giro schedule would consist of “four short stage races and […] a lot of training camps,” adding that it was not necessarily conducive to targeting Liège-Bastogne-Liège. “I'm going to do altitude training before Liège, so the question is whether I will start with good legs,” he said. “You can never say that in advance.”
Evenepoel has already been to reconnoitre the Giro’s two early time trials, in Abruzzo on the opening day and in Cesena on stage 9, though he warned that his race would ultimately be decided by how he coped with the succession of mountains in the third week.
“It will come down to using our strength sparingly, because the centre of gravity is in that third week, with another monster of a time trial on the penultimate day [to Monte Lussari – ed.],” Evenepoel said. “I hope to explore a few more stages, but it's not easy to schedule that. I like what I've seen so far. It is a nice course, I’m happy with my choice of the Giro.”
Evenepoel will not face Pogacar or Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma) in Italy, as both men will return to the Tour. Asked if he longed to test himself against them, Evenepoel said: “Yes, yes. But personally, I mainly look at the route of the Grand Tours, and whether there are nice time trials in it or not. And the time trials in the Giro appealed to me the most in the Giro for 2023. I hope to meet them soon, why not in one-week stage races and hopefully soon after that in a Grand Tour.”
