Remco Evenepoel (; born 25 January 2000) is a Belgian professional cyclist and Olympic gold medalist who currently rides for UCI WorldTeam Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe.
Evenepoel is regarded as the best time trialist of his generation; he is a four-time UCI world champion (2023, 2024, 2025 and 2026), Olympic champion (2024), and two-time European champion (2019 and 2025). He has also found success in one-day classics, winning Liège–Bastogne–Liège twice in 2022 and 2023, the UCI road race world championship in 2022, and Olympic road race in 2024. Evenepoel also won the Vuelta a España in 2022, becoming the first Belgian to win a Grand Tour since 1978.
The son of former cyclist Patrick Evenepoel, Remco began his sporting career as a footballer, playing as a midfielder in the youth ranks of R.S.C. Anderlecht, PSV Eindhoven, and the Belgian national youth teams. After switching to cycling in 2017, he dominated the junior ranks by winning the road race and time trial in the junior categories at the 2018 UCI Road World Championships. Evenepoel elected to skip the under-23 level, turning professional in 2019 with Deceuninck–Quick-Step (now Soudal–Quick-Step). In his debut professional season, he became the youngest winner of a UCI WorldTour race by winning the Clásica de San Sebastián at age 19.
After a career-threatening injury in 2020 at Il Lombardia, Evenepoel returned to racing at the 2021 Giro d'Italia. For his achievements in 2022, Evenepoel was awarded the Vélo d'Or, given to the most successful cyclist of the season. In 2024, Evenepoel made his debut at the Tour de France, where he placed third overall behind Tadej Pogačar and Jonas Vingegaard, also taking home the young rider's classification. Shortly after the Tour, Evenepoel became the only male cyclist to win both the Olympic time trial and road race, achieving both at the 2024 Summer Olympics.
Early life and football Remco Evenepoel was born on 25 January 2000 in Aalst, Belgium to Agna and Patrick Evenepoel. His father was briefly a professional cyclist, best known for winning the 1993 Grand Prix de Wallonie, before working as a plasterer, while his mother was a hairdresser. Evenepoel started his sporting career as a football player, joining R.S.C. Anderlecht's youth academy at the age of five. At eleven, he switched to PSV Eindhoven before returning to Anderlecht three years later. Among his teammates in the PSV youth teams were Jay Idzes, Rico Zeegers and Sekou Sidibe.
Evenepoel played primarily as a defensive midfielder and left back. At one point, he was considered one of Belgium's most promising talents, making nine appearances for Belgium's U15 and U16 teams. Although Evenepoel himself admitted in 2020 he "didn't have the best technique", he was well regarded for his stamina and leadership, captaining both Anderlecht and Belgium's youth teams. During this time, Evenepoel also showed promise as a runner. At age 16, without any dedicated training, he entered the Brussels Half-Marathon, running the day after a football match, and finished 13th in 1:16:15. After suffering a pelvic fracture during a match, his football career took a downturn and he was released by Anderlecht in 2016. Evenepoel joined KV Mechelen, who were prepared to offer him a professional contract after another six months, but Evenepoel instead chose to quit and pursue cycling full-time.
Cycling career Junior career
In 2017, Evenepoel began cycling full-time. Initially, he was coached by , former three-time Belgian marathon champion and friend of his father. In his first races, Evenepoel struggled with bike handling and riding in groups, with youth teammate Danny van der Tuuk recalling Evenepoel "couldn't finish races" because of how often he crashed. His first win came in his tenth race as a junior.
He won both the time trial and road race at the 2018 European Junior Road Cycling Championships. The gap between him and the second place rider in the road race was 9 minutes and 44 seconds over a distance of 118.8 km.
Later in the year, Evenepoel also won both the road race and the time trial at the UCI Junior Road World Championships.
Deceuninck–Quick-Step 2019 — professional debut
Electing to skip the under-23 ranks, Evenepoel announced in July 2018 that he would join for the 2019 season. For his first season, Evenepoel was scheduled to compete in shorter stage races, and skipped the cobbled, one-day Classic races. In his debut race, the Vuelta a San Juan, Evenepoel won the young rider classification and 9th overall whilst also winning his first professional podium in the stage 3 time trial behind teammate Julian Alaphilippe and Valerio Conti. Evenepoel's first professional victory came at the Tour of Belgium, where he won the general classification as well as a stage and the points classification. On 3 August 2019 Evenepoel scored his first World Tour victory when he won the Clásica de San Sebastián. He escaped from the field, accompanied by Toms Skujiņš about from the finish, dropping his companion on the last hill and soloing to victory. He became the third-youngest rider ever to win a cycling classic in the history of the sport. On 8 August 2019, Evenepoel won the time trial at the 2019 European Road Championships. At the World Championships in September, Evenepoel would have been eligible to still ride in the under-23 category, but decided against it and started in the elite men's events. He went on to win the silver medal in the time trial. He spent much of the year sharing a room with Philippe Gilbert who acted in a mentoring role.
2020 — career threatening crash Evenepoel started the 2020 season at the Vuelta a San Juan, where he won the individual time trial on stage 3 and the general classification. He then competed at the Volta ao Algarve. Here, he won stage 2 as well as the final stage, a time trial, to clinch overall victory ahead of Maximilian Schachmann.
After the extended break in the cycling calendar due to the COVID-19 pandemic, he won the Vuelta a Burgos and the Tour de Pologne.
Evenepoel suffered a serious accident at Il Lombardia on 16 August 2020. While descending the Muro di Sormano and after a sharp curve, he collided with a low wall on the side of a bridge and was thrown over it with the impact, falling in a dirt area near some trees, roughly below the road. No other cyclists were involved in the accident and he was swiftly removed from the scene by the emergency services, being conscious and responsive all the time. Hours later, his team reported that he had suffered a fractured pelvis and a right lung contusion, also stating that he would not be returning to competition in the near future.
2021 — first Grand Tour Evenepoel returned to competition in the 2021 Giro d'Italia, finishing 7th in the prologue time trial, after which he said: "I was standing on the start ramp with some tears in my eyes. It was a hard way to come back and start the Giro like this. But immediately a top-10 spot, I didn't expect it – I'm really happy." After spending the first 15 stages in the top-10 of the general classification, he crashed during stage 17 and was unable to continue the race.
He competed in the rescheduled 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo in both the road race and time trial earning a top 10 place in the latter. During the 2021 World Championships in Flanders he claimed his second elite level world championship medal, taking the bronze in the time trial. Evenepoel was the centre of a furore in the World road race. Ahead of the race, it was felt that Wout van Aert was the protected leader for a Belgian team that was very hopeful of a home win, and Eddy Merckx stated to Het Nieuwsblad that "If there is only one leader, you really shouldn't take Evenepoel [...] He rides mainly for himself; we saw that at the Olympics". Evenepoel responded "He always has to say something and that's a shame [...] Maybe it stings that I didn't ride for his son's team. I have a lot of respect for Eddy and apparently that is not mutual." On the race ahead "I'm here to work for Belgium, for Wout, because I know that it's the chance of his life to be world champion. He's in the form of his life, and it would be stupid of me to ride for myself. On this parcours, no one is stronger than Wout. I said already a lot of times that I will do everything [for] Wout."
In the road race Evenepoel appeared to answer Merckx' criticism that he is a selfish cyclist by joining an early attack with 180 km still to race, followed by a second mid-race attack, and then created the decisive selection in the finals laps. Van Aert was unable to win the race, which was won by Julian Alaphilippe. After the race, people from the world of cycling such as Evenepoel's trade team boss Patrick Lefevere praised Evenepoel's strength and wondered if the Belgian team had made the wrong choice of leader. Lefevere asked: "[W]hy did the Belgians want to break open the race so early? And above all, why did they throw Remco into the fray so early? For me, Remco was the best man in the race after Julian. But they just sacrificed him and rolled out the red carpet for Julian."
Evenepoel responded to the criticism of Belgium's tactics by revealing that he felt he could have won the race but that "[o]n Friday evening before the World Championships there was a meeting with everyone. It was very unclear to me what exactly was expected of me. So after sleeping on it, the next day I went to coaches Sven Vanthourenhout and Serge Pauwels and asked: 'What do you expect from me in concrete terms?' "I also said straight out that I thought I might be able to win the race in a certain scenario. 'Do I get a chance or not?' I asked. 'No,' was the answer." This caused a rift in the team; Van Aert said "I expected to hear criticism because we didn't win but that it came from someone on the team is not smart and only serves to add fuel to the fire. It's a shame, and I regret it. Remco issued more criticism on TV than in the team meeting" and "He was the one who agreed with the tactics, who agreed with the selection. He has been preaching for weeks on end how he was looking forward to it so I think it's really weird to turn 180 degrees now".
Days after the race Belgian team-mate Jasper Stuyven said that Evenepoel had failed to show up for the team debrief: "Everyone was there, except Remco [...] He was aware, but didn't think it was necessary. I think that is a shame, especially because he thought it necessary to say things on TV. That stuck with some of us. [...] I think that Remco should sometimes be slowed down by his entourage. He still has to learn when he can and cannot say things. Also, a super-strong rider – which he certainly is – should realise that some things should remain internal."
2022 — Grand Tour, Monument, and World Championship victory
On 24 April, at the age of 22, Evenepoel won his first cycling monument in Liège–Bastogne–Liège after a 29.6 km solo effort with a 48-second lead on the runner-up. It was his first participation in this cycling classic. He completed the 257.1 km with an average speed of 41.397 km/h, which was the fastest edition in the history of La Doyenne. He won the 2022 Clásica de San Sebastián by launching a successful 44 kilometre solo attack, finishing nearly two minutes ahead of second-placed Pavel Sivakov.