Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe have explained why Remco Evenepoel is spending more than two months away from racing prior to heading to the Tour de France this July.
Evenepoel last raced in Liège-Bastogne-Liège, where he took third behind Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) and Paul Seixas (Decathlon CMA CGM) and – in what is a very long mid-season period away from racing compared with the programs of many other top pros – will next be seen in action in the Tour de France start in Barcelona on July 4.
Evenepoel is in the thick of a three-week altitude camp in Sierra Nevada, along with teammates and several members of staff, including a trainer, nutritionist, osteopath and a team doctor, and where it so happens that Pogačar and Seixas are also training.
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But if Seixas and Pogačar will both be heading to races in June - the Frenchman to the Tour Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes [formerly known as the Critérium du Dauphiné], the Slovenian to the Tour de Suisse – Evenepoel is not doing a single race before the Tour. That includes the Belgian National Championships, where Evenepoel is the current TT champion, for a second time, and has a road race win back in 2023.
"We've seen in the last few months that Remco can reach a very high level without necessarily taking part in preparation races," sports director Patxi Vila, who's overseeing the Sierra Nevada camp, told Dernière Heure.
"We preferred to head in a straight line towards the Tour and we have faith in this plan. That should allow him to reach Barcelona more relaxed and in better shape."
Regarding the Tour Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, Vila explained that "We never know how things are going to work out, if it'll be really quick or calmer. We want to keep control of the workload, the stimuli, the progress and the process. We want to prepare him down to the last millimetre for the Tour."
Vila commented that the 26-year-old, preparing to tackle his first-ever Tour with Red Bull after switching teams over the winter, "is very motivated." Good morale is certainly helpful at this point, as Strava training ride data shows that Evenepoel is currently engaged in dauntingly long six-to-seven-hour training rides, Dernière Heure report.
The team are combining long training rides with shorter, more intense ones at the lower altitude - the main part of the Sierra Nevada ski station, where Evenepoel is staying, is at over 2,000 metres above sea level. It all forms part of what Vila calls "the foundations of the house, before more specific work in the weeks to come," where Evenepoel will also recon certain Tour de France stages.
Overall, the aim is to create a solid enough condition for Evenepoel to perform "at very high intensity, above all in the mountains."
With that in mind, the team are working on moving Evenepoel away from a more muscular physique, as needed to perform well in Classics and for explosive efforts, towards a condition where he can operate best in the big climbs in the Tour.
At the same time, Vila says the Red Bull is using the training camp to reinforce collective morale and cohesiveness for the upcoming races, with teammates present, including Jan Tratnik, Primož Roglič, Florian Lipowitz, Maxim van Gils and Gianni Vermeersch already present in the Andalucian ski station, and other riders, including 2024 Giro d'Italia podium finisher Dani Martínez and Mick van Dijk, expected shortly.
However, although Lipowitz, third in last year's Tour, and Evenepoel, third in 2024, are definitely forming part of the team's lineup for July, the presence of other riders in Sierra Nevada doesn't guarantee they'll be racing alongside them.
Roglič, for example, was only slated to do Suisse and then ride the Vuelta a España in search of a record-breaking fifth bid in August. Rather, Vila said, Red Bull will only officially announce its eight riders for the Tour on June 26.
