Remco Evenepoel will ride the Tour of Flanders in shock debut

Remco Evenepoel will ride the Tour of Flanders on Sunday, announcing his shock debut after a media frenzy surrounding his possible participation.

Evenepoel and his Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe team had consistently denied he would make his debut at Flanders' Finest this year, despite speculation that began in December and has persisted throughout the season.

However, the Belgian media was awash with headlines on Wednesday morning suggesting Evenepoel would indeed make a dramatic entry to the start list, and that was soon confirmed by the rider himself.

"Flanders, are you ready?" Evenepoel said in a short video announcing his participation in Sunday's Monument. "See you on Sunday, Ronde Van Vlaanderen," he added, referring to the race's official Flemish name.

The Tour of Flanders also confirmed Evenepoel's participation, saying: "You thought it was an April Fool’s joke, right? The Olympic champion is debuting in #RVV26 next Sunday!"

The former road race world champion raised eyebrows over the winter when he was spotted riding on some of the key Tour of Flanders climbs. However, he has played down the possibility ever since, amid growing excitement over his potential on the cobbles.

"How certain is it that I won't be starting in the Tour of Flanders? Very certain. 100 percent certain. I have to disappoint you," he told Sporza at a team training camp in December.

He also denied it as recently as this weekend, after placing fifth at the Volta a Catalunya.

"I know you keep pushing, and that many people would love to see me at the start. But it’s not for this year. My schedule isn’t being adjusted," Evenepoel said, according to Het Laatste Nieuws.

Speculation over Evenepoel's possible participation emerged on Tuesday evening through Dutch website Wielerflits, though the report was dismissed as a rumour by Belgian newspaper Het Nieuwsblad.

At the start of Dwars door Vlaanderen in Roeselare on Wednesday morning, the Red Bull bus was the subject of much media frenzy, and reports around Evenepoel's Flanders debut began to emerge in the Belgian press, before the news was confirmed shortly after the start of the race on Wednesday lunchtime.

The frenzy at Dwars door Vlaanderen

The frenzy at Dwars door Vlaanderen

James Moultrie

With conflicting reports about a potential surprise debut for Remco Evenepoel at the Tour of Flanders coming out of Wielerflits and Het Nieuwsblad, almost everyone in the media was after the Ref Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe bus at the start of Dwars door Vlaanderen.

With his former Belgian national coach Sven Vanthourenhout operating as lead DS in Belgium, surely he would have answers. But as Flemish media and then the written press tried to find out more about Evenepoel joining their planned recon and possibly racing on Sunday, he said he was unable to speak about anything at this moment.

The caginess from the team camp was perhaps telling, and indeed confirmation would come just over an hour later, changing the narrative ahead of Sunday’s race completely.

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