Remco Evenepoel couldn't quite win the final high mountain stage of the 2026 Tour de France, but the Belgian star's confirmation of his second place overall more than made up for any sense of disappointment at the finish line of Alpe d'Huez on Saturday.
Two years after his third place overall in the 2024 race, the Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe racer has moved up a spot in 2026, and barring absolute disaster on the last 89-kilometre run on Sunday through Paris, he is set to clinch Belgium's best overall finish in the Tour since 1976 winner Lucien Van Impe finished second in 1981.
Evenepoel almost managed to clinch what would have been Belgium's first win in Alpe d'Huez, too, had he been able to close in on Richard Carapaz (EF Education-EasyPost) on the last four-kilometre ascent. But after attacking as soon as the chasing trio of himself, Isaac del Toro and yellow jersey Tadej Pogacar (both UAE Team Emirates-XRG) had reached the final unclassified climb up the Alpe and closing in on the Ecuadorian star as the finish line drew closer, he fell short by just 26 seconds.
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There is still one more opportunity remaining for Evenepoel for a third 2026 Tour stage win on Sunday, where the race returns to the same climb of Butte Montmartre and the finish on the Champs-Elysées where Evenepoel took Olympic road gold back in 2024.
But in any case, the time for celebration of second overall has already all but arrived, with Evenepoel not missing the opportunity to fire off a message to his persistent critics back home in Belgium, too, saying "This is proof that the disbelief in me is unfounded."
"I had another really good day; second place is wonderful. It was very tough to reach this level, but with all the necessary patience and all the necessary work behind the scenes, I managed it, so I am super satisfied with that," Evenepoel told Sporza after stage 20.
Widely considered the best time triallist in the world, the 2026 Tour has not just seen Evenepoel take the stage 16 individual TT, as expected, but also turn in some notable high mountain performances, previously considered by some to be his Achilles heel.
Quite apart from his victory against Del Toro and Pogačar on stage 15, Evenepoel also came through the final Alpine challenges looking more than up to the task – as Saturday's near-miss proved once again.
"Second in the Tour is something not everyone can say. In recent years there have always been only two [top podium finishers]" – Pogačar and Jonas Vingegaard – " and now it is someone else; I am super happy that I can be that person," Evenepoel said.
Currently 6:26 behind Pogacar, nearly three minutes less than in 2024, "I am super proud of all the work of the team and everyone around me – [his wife] Oumi, my family, my parents, the whole team, it is fantastic. Tomorrow [Sunday] there is another great stage to try and win, but after that we are definitely going to celebrate."
Evenepoel said that he had made a gesture of being upset when he crossed the line because he had wanted to go for the victory on Alpe d'Huez, and the feeling of such a major near-miss was not one he enjoyed.
"I am super-satisfied regardless, but with my winner's mentality there is a little bit of disappointment," he told Nieuwsblad.
"But that will go within half an hour. I was just 20 seconds behind Carapaz, so the climb should have been another two kilometres longer."
Sunday may yet turn out to be another chance for Evenepoel, though, and his runner-up spot in Paris, together with two stage wins, including a first summit finish victory in the Tour at Plateau de Solaison, will mark another high point in his career. In terms of the bigger picture, things could hardly have turned out better.
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