New 12 months, new workforce, and a brand new Tour de France technique for Remco Evenepoel.
The Olympic highway race and time trial champion is swapping the colors of Soudal Fast-Step for Pink Bull-Bora-hansgrohe in 2026, after a seven-year spell with the workforce he turned professional with in 2019.
In distinction to his previous two appearances on the Tour the place he has been his workforce’s solely GC chief, Evenepoel will line up on the 2026 race alongside his new Pink Bull teammate Florian Lipowitz. Simply this summer time, Lipowitz, on debut within the Tour, completed third.
The 2-pronged method is due to this fact not a shock, nevertheless it’s going to be a brand new manner of working for Evenepoel, who for years has been used to having a complete workforce working solely for him.
Talking at Pink Bull’s 2026 season launch in Mallorca, the Belgian didn’t attempt to faux that it will not be straightforward adapting to the brand new scenario. “Will probably be the primary time I am going to a Grand Tour with double management, and it’s one of the best ways for us to do nicely,” he stated.
“I solely knew yesterday that I used to be going to be using the Tour, so it’s nonetheless early to talk about racing it collectively as there’s a whole lot of time to go. We’ll do some races collectively and coaching camps as a result of it’s fairly new and we are going to find out about one another increasingly, and learn to race collectively.
“We’re each various kinds of riders by way of techniques and selections within the race, and we are able to solely try to go for it and see the way it goes.
“It’s a bit early to make a remaining resolution or remark about going collectively. However in lots of Grand Excursions it’s all the time higher to go there with a couple of leaders. The workforce decides who goes to the Tour and we adapt to one another and the techniques. It’s not the top of the world to go collectively.
“Hopefully we are able to each find yourself collectively as excessive as potential. Whether or not it’s myself or Florian, we wish to be on step one, nevertheless it’s a really troublesome one to do.”
Evenepoel and Lipowitz will first race collectively at March’s Volta a Catalunya, and they’re already promising to entertain. “There are a number of techniques that we are able to use… and I feel two utterly totally different types once they come collectively is usually a excellent mixture. We may even strive it in different races,” Evenepoel stated.
(Picture credit score: Pink Bull-Bora-hansgrohe/Maximilian Fries)
The overwhelming favorite for the 2026 Tour shall be Tadej Pogačar as soon as once more, and neither Evenepoel nor Lipowitz made any grand statements about being assured of bettering the Slovenian. However, Evenepoel insisted, a formidable efficiency subsequent July might lay the foundations for an eventual profitable tilt at claiming the yellow jersey.
“All people is aware of that Tadej has been actually excellent the previous couple of years, so for us it’s a purpose as a workforce and individually as nicely to return as shut as potential and to hopefully sooner or later win it,” he stated.
“For us it’s actually necessary to go to the Tour this 12 months with a extremely robust workforce, to show to ourselves that we now have a giant future for this race, and that we are able to win it with the workforce in some unspecified time in the future.
“For myself I’ll simply attempt to enhance myself as a lot as potential. There are a whole lot of new issues that I’ve realized on this workforce that I’m now doing and I feel all of this stuff will assist me to change into a greater rider, and I hope it’s going to be sufficient.”
A 19.7km workforce time trial [TTT] within the centre of Barcelona will get the 2026 Tour underway, with the Spanish metropolis internet hosting the Grand Départ. In a change to custom, as an alternative of every rider receiving the identical time as the remainder of his teammates, riders will be capable to break up off from their workforce within the closing kilometre and dash to the road faster. It’s seemingly that Evenepoel will achieve a couple of seconds instantly on Lipowitz.
“The primary three to 4 days are actually good for us to attempt to seize a stage win and naturally we’re aiming to take yellow on day one,” Evenepoel stated.
To assist in his and his workforce’s quest to realize an early higher hand within the race for the maillot jaune, Evenepoel will open his season in late January with a 26km workforce time trial as a part of the annual Problem Mallorca races.
“It’s a very good alternative to check all the stuff, to check line-ups, and simply to get used to racing in a TTT as a result of it’s one thing very particular, and naturally for us it’s going to be a really huge day, the primary one of many Tour. We’re going to race the Mallorca TTT prefer it’s the primary stage of the Tour.”
As for the remainder of the Tour, world time trial champion Evenepoel bemoaned the shortage of time trialling kilometres; stage 16’s 26km ITT is the race’s sole check in opposition to the clock, and it packs in a number of tons of of metres of climbing.
“Personally I’m a bit disillusioned with the TT we get, as a result of we now have so many metres of climbing within the final week and we don’t have an actual TT,” he stated. “That’s the one unfavourable level.”
There had been some dialogue that Evenepoel would journey the Giro d’Italia earlier than the Tour, in addition to making his debut on the Tour of Flanders. However the two-time Liège-Bastogne-Liège winner confirmed that his racing schedule could be “regular”, with the Tour and the World Championships the principle focus.
“I had a really troublesome season final 12 months and so we would like a very good season, an easy-going one, not so many loopy issues,” he stated.
As for the Worlds in Montreal, he commented: “For certain within the TT I’ll all the time be there, and the highway race it’s a really good alternative. It’s one other huge purpose for me and I’ll attempt to be there at greater than 100% to try to go for a double. That may be very good for myself and in addition for my workforce.”