Remco Evenepoel announced on Friday that he received good news from his latest medical check-up and is set to prepare for his 2021 season targets, which include the Giro d'Italia and the Olympic Games.
In his first two seasons in the WorldTour with Deceuninck-Quickstep, the 21-year-old racked up 14 victories including five stage race wins. After taking out his first WorldTour stage race at the Tour de Pologne last August, Evenepoel made a key selection in Il Lombardia but crashed off a bridge on the descent of the Sormano and fractured his pelvis.
Initially, Evenepoel felt his recovery was going faster than expected and two months after his fall he was out training on the road again. But in January, lingering pain from the fracture put him off the bike again for three weeks. He was cleared to resume training cautiously last month.
The delay meant that he has shifted the start of his season to the Giro d'Italia, which begins on May 8 in Turin, opting to forgo the Ardennes Classics.
He posted on Friday to Instagram, writing, "This was an important week, after testing at the Bakala Academy and another scan & check up with the medical staff, nothing is holding me back anymore to start the preparation for my season to come!"
Evenepoel signed with Deceuninck-Quickstep after winning both the time trial and road race of the European and World Championships in the junior category. He quickly found success at professional level, winning the best young rider classification in his first outing at the Vuelta a San Juan in 2019. He went on to claim the Baloise Belgium Tour and a stage of the Adriatica Ionica before winning his first WorldTour race at the Clásica San Sebastián.
In the 2020 season, cut short by the coronavirus pandemic, he was even more prolific. He began the year by winning the overall classification at the Vuelta a San Juan and Volta ao Algarve before racing came to a halt as COVID-19 spread across the globe.
When his main focus, the Olympic Games, was postponed to 2021, Evenepoel was forced to readjust his goals. When races started up again, so did his winning streak: he won the Vuelta a Burgos and Tour de Pologne through long-range solo attacks.
This season he will tackle his first Grand Tour in the Giro but will not race again until the Tokyo Olympic Games, where he will target both the road race and time trial.
