Remco Evenepoel has shown off his Olympic bling at the Tour of Britain, adding a gold helmet, gold sunglasses and gold bands on his sleeves, shorts and socks, to his gold Specialized race bike.
Evenepoel became the first male rider to complete the Olympic road race and time trial double in Paris after Leontien Zijlaard van Moorsel of the Netherlands won double gold in Sydney in 2000.
He is a former road race world champion and convinced the UCI to allow him to add gold bands to the rainbow bands on his jersey sleeves.
"I had to fight for them quite a bit because the UCI insisted that the rainbow bands had priority, but luckily I got both," Evenepoel told HLN/VTM.
The 24-year-old Belgian returned to racing at the Tour of Britain, exactly a month after completing his double gold-medal success at the Paris Olympics.
He has set the Road World Championships in Zurich and Il Lombardia in October as final goals to aim for and motivate him in training in September. He confirmed that he will not ride the European road race and time championships, with the Tour of Britain offering an ideal return to racing and a chance to show off his gold bling.
“I am really proud to wear this special kit. The last months have been an amazing part of my career and being the first man to win the double of the road race and time trial at the Olympic Games is something that dreams are made of,” he said.
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“To be able to celebrate it with this kit is something that makes me very proud and I want to thank everybody involved in the process and details of marking what happened in Paris in this special way.”
Evenepoel has a gold Specialized S-Works Tarmac SL8 race bike, equipped with a Shimano Dura-Ace Di2 electronic groupset. Most of the bike equipment comes from the Specialized subsidiary brand Roval which provides the Rapide handlebars, saddle, and wheels.
Remco Evenepoel shows off his new Soudal-QuickStep jersey with special Olympic gold bands (Image credit: Soudal-QuickStep)
Stephen is one of the most experienced members of the Cyclingnews team, having reported on professional cycling since 1994. Before becoming Editor-at-large, he was Head of News at Cyclingnews. He has previously worked for Shift Active Media, Reuters and Cycling Weekly. He is a member of the Board of the Association Internationale des Journalistes du Cyclisme (AIJC).
