Evenepoel delays journey to European Championships after Worlds exertions

Remco Evenepoel has delayed his journey to the European Championships in Slovenia by a day to facilitate his recovery from his efforts at last weekend’s World Championships in Montreal.

While the bulk of the Belgian elite men’s team travelled to Slovenia on Thursday, the riders who also lined up at the Worlds will not join them until Friday. Evenepoel, Quinten Hermans and Maxim Van Gils will spend an extra day at home before linking up with Jenno Berckmoes, Ramses Debruyne, Sander De Pestel, Ilan Van Wilder, and Louis Vervaeke.

“The riders who have been in Canada preferred to schedule one extra training day in Belgium,” Belgian Cycling said in a statement on Thursday.

Sporza reports that Evenepoel is now set to reconnoitre the course on Saturday morning ahead of the elite women’s road race. 

Evenepoel will line up in Ljubljana looking to put a disappointing showing at the Worlds road race behind him. His Canadian expedition started with a win at the Grand Prix Cycliste de Québec and a fourth straight world time trial title, but he could only manage 12th in the Worlds road race after a subdued showing.

In the absence of defending champion Tadej Pogačar and last year’s bronze medallist Paul Seixas, Evenepoel is the favourite to win the European Championships. Tom Pidcock (Great Britain) and Ben Healy (Ireland) also miss out after their countries opted against sending teams to the road race.

Evenepoel’s opponents in Slovenia on Sunday will include Mads Pedersen (Denmark), Romain Grégoire (France) and Christian Scaroni (Italy).

The Belgian has made two previous appearances in the European Championships road race, taking silver behind Sonny Colbrelli in Trento in 2021 and again behind Pogačar in the Ardèche last year.

Although Evenepoel is the reigning European time trial champion, he has opted against defending his title, preferring to build towards Il Lombardia on October 10, his final race of the season.