Evenepoel all but confirms 2026 Tour participation - '99% chance I'll be at the start'

Remco Evenepoel has confirmed he will almost certainly ride the 2026 Tour de France in his debut season with Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe, despite a route featuring just 26km of individual time trialling for the Olympic and three-time world time trial champion.

"There's a 99% chance I'll be at the start," Evenepoel told Het Nieuwsblad when asked about his Tour participation.

The 25-year-old also revealed some of the key factors behind his decision to leave Soudal Quick-Step after six seasons, where he began his professional career back in 2019, and has since claimed 67 victories, including the Vuelta a España, World Championships and Olympic Games road races, as well as Liège-Bastogne-Liège twice.

"You can see now that the team wants to shift more towards the spring classics and is investing in them. While I think: we were on the Tour de France podium, won the Vuelta, and were on our way to winning the Giro... Why not try harder and invest more? But for some reason, that wasn't really the plan anymore," said Evenepoel.

The Olympic champion noted a more structured approach at Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe compared to his former team, stating, "Let me give you an example: they [Red Bull] booked hotel rooms on Mount Teide for the entire spring three or four months ago. That wasn't the case at Soudal Quick-Step. There, it was more freestyle: okay, we're going there for a training camp now."

The move to the German team means that Evenepoel has parted ways with his long-time coach Koen Pelgrim, with whom he has worked since 2018. Evenepoel’s new coach at Red Bull is Dan Lorang, and the Belgian explained how this was an important consideration he had to make when leaving Soudal Quick-Step.

"During the first conversations, it became clear that bringing a trainer along wasn't an option. I had to think about that for a while," said Evenepoel. "I started working with Koen in the summer of 2018. We worked together for a long time and achieved fantastic results. But maybe now's the time, if I want to develop further, to look for someone else who can help me improve in certain aspects."

Evenepoel identified specific training targets with his new coach, Lorang, particularly focusing on sustained high-intensity efforts similar to those deployed by Tadej Pogačar.

"It's about pushing certain values over a certain time, which Tadej is extremely good at. Riding an extremely hard pace for a good five minutes, forcing everyone to drop," he explained.

Evenepoel also touched upon the issue that affected him in the build-up to the Tour de France, which he ultimately abandoned on the Col du Tourmalet on stage 14.

"That broken rib at the Belgian Championships was a minor issue, but the training sessions that weren't going as planned were difficult. I had to quit every interval training session after five, six, or seven minutes, while I should have been doing a block of fifteen or twenty minutes,” said Evenepoel. "At some point, I got that severe fatigue again. I slept poorly and had no appetite. And then it's ruined in a Grand Tour."

Despite these challenges, Evenepoel's 2025 season included some very impressive performances, particularly his dominant World Championship time trial victory over Pogačar.

"We thought: if I have a good day, maybe a minute might be possible, but we never expected two-and-a-half minutes," he said.

The Belgian also expressed admiration for Pogačar's extraordinary level, particularly at the European Championships, where Evenepoel finished second.

"I know how hard I was riding behind him. Uphill, I kept closing in on him by a few seconds, but on the flats, he pulled away from me. The wattage I was putting out was immense: an average of 305 watts over five hours."