After one of the best starts to a season of his career, Remco Evenepoel will avoid competition altogether until the start of the Tour de France, his Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe team announced on Monday.
Evenepoel's last race was Liège-Bastogne-Liège, where he finished third behind Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) and Paul Seixas (Decathlon CMA CGM) - two rivals he will face in the Tour de France, which starts in Barcelona on July 4.
With the Tour Auvergne – Rhône-Alpes off his schedule, Evenepoel will not race for 68 days before the Tour. Instead, he will focus on recovery, course recons, specific training, and a May altitude camp, per the team.
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The Dauphiné has historically been an important last step toward preparing for the Tour de France due to its level, its position on the calendar and a race tailored by the organisers - the ASO puts on both races - to present key Tour obstacles in advance.
The Tour Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes is the only race remaining on the calendar that has a team time trial before the Tour starts, with a 19-kilometre TTT in Barcelona, making it even more unusual that so many Tour contenders are skipping the race.
Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) raced the Dauphiné before both of his Tour victories (2022 and 2023), while Pogačar competed in the Dauphiné before winning the Tour in 2020 and 2025. He raced the Tour of Slovenia and his national championships before his 2021 victory, and the Giro d'Italia before winning the 2024 Tour de France.
Evenepoel also raced the Dauphiné before finishing on the podium behind Pogačar and Vingegaard in the 2024 Tour, but will take a very different approach this year.
After winning three times in the Mallorca Challenge, then the Volta Valenciana, Evenepoel competed in the UAE Tour and Volta a Catalunya before a trio of Spring Classics, including a win in the Amstel Gold Race and a podium in the Tour of Flanders.
"We decided together with Remco to take a break from racing after an intense spring," Chief of Sports Zak Dempster said in a press release. "The goal is for him to arrive in Barcelona completely fresh. After analysing his 25 race days, we see greater benefit in a balanced alternative program than in adding further race load."
Evenepoel's absence in the race formerly known as the Dauphiné will leave the field wide open: Vingegaard is racing in the Giro d'Italia, while Pogačar has chosen the Tour de Suisse as his final race before the Tour.
Evenepoel's teammate Florian Lipowitz, who was the only rider to even come close to Pogačar during the Tour de Romandie, finishing second at 42 seconds in the GC on Sunday, won't race in France before the Tour, either.
The German will take "a short recovery block", followed by an altitude camp in May, and will race the Tour of Slovenia from June 17-21 before heading to Barcelona.
"Florian has been extremely consistent across his last three stage races," Dempster said. "We achieved the desired performance stimulus this spring, and most importantly, he gained a lot of confidence in the path we've mapped out together. We will now continue on this path with patience and consistency over the next two months."
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