Remco Evenepoel said he deliberately stayed away from social media in the lead-up to his surprise Tour of Flanders debut announcement on Wednesday, joking with the media in Flemish on Wednesday that he was "able to enjoy in a very relaxed way how we ripped you off."
The shock news of Evenepoel's planned start came out on Wednesday at the start of Dwars door Vlaanderen, after it had been rumoured since November and denied constantly by the Belgian star and his entourage at Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe.
It produced a negative response from much of the local media, who were told categorically that he wouldn't be racing De Ronde on several occasions, but did offer fans an exciting addition, and his presence certainly makes for one of the most stacked start lists at Flanders in recent memory.
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"I deliberately got rid of my social media for the past two weeks before all this fuss. I was able to relax and enjoy how we ripped you off," said Evenepoel with a smile at a press conference on Friday afternoon, as reported by Sporza.
"I would have preferred to say that I would start, but Wednesday was the agreed time. That happened to be April 1st, but above all, it was a race day. That was the marketing side of it. But that won't work next year, and the intention isn't to keep that a secret. Then you will know everything in December.
"I know this can only happen once. From next year onwards, I will give my full program and there won't be much tinkering. But this was the first time, and it is a risk to start without another cobbled race in the legs, so we waited as long as possible. But no one was going to pull me back from starting."
His chances for Sunday
While this did form part of his pre-race press moment, the focus was mainly on how Evenepoel could perform on debut, and he didn't hold back when it came to how confident he was.
"Do I feel like I can win? Otherwise, I wouldn't be starting here," he said, before contradicting what his former team boss, Patrick Lefevere, had said earlier in the week about asking Evenepoel year after year to make his debut.
"I told him for so many years to do it, and he didn't," Lefevere told Cyclingnews after Dwars door Vlaanderen. "Now he's gone from us, and he's going to do it."
"It is a race I have wanted to ride for a long time, but that was held back a bit in the past. This year I pushed for it," said Evenepoel, contrastingly, with Sporza reporting that he had asked for three seasons to race at Flanders.
"That was always blocked. This year, during the meetings, I said: either the Giro or the Tour of Flanders. When I knew the Giro wasn't an option, Flanders was on my schedule. And then we would wait and see how I got through the season. But I knew they wouldn't be able to talk me out of it."
Evenepoel knows that he doesn't yet have the credentials of heavy favourite and defending champion Tadej Pogačar, or three-time winner Mathieu van der Poel at Flanders, but he has long been a better one-day racer throughout his career, with an Olympic and World road race title to his name and two Monument successes already from Liège-Bastogne-Liège.
"Mathieu, Tadej, and Wout [van Aert] have already proven enough that they can win or are capable of winning here," said Evenepoel.
"For me, racing on this course is new. That is something quite different from training. In terms of capabilities, I can come close to them, but due to a lack of experience, I will place myself below them regardless."
The main favourites were all asked about the addition of Evenepoel to the start list and what this presents, with Pogačar warning about how "unpredictable" he is and Van der Poel saying not to underestimate him, but the Belgian ruled out any chance of alliances forming on the road.
"No... Everyone wants to win. Then it is difficult to ride against someone. In finales it is man against man and the strongest will win. I don't think allies need to be sought. Here, the strongest always rides away," he said.
"The difference is made on the climbs, and after that you can't ride that much faster than someone else because it's so tough. But I am drawing motivation from the Amstel, even though that is a different race without cobblestones. But there are plenty of places to make the difference."
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