Evenepoel weighs up Giro-Tour double and surprise Tour of Flanders debut in 2026

In a joint interview with Johan Museeuw due to be published in full in Het Laatste Nieuws on Saturday, Evenepoel indicated that he was almost certain to ride the Tour de France in 2026, but he is weighing up the prospect of adding the Giro to his programme.

“At the moment, we have a plan A and a plan B on the table,” Evenepoel told Het Laatste Nieuws in the interview to mark the newspaper’s annual Kristallen Fiets prize.

“The first includes a Classics campaign, the second the Giro. Based on the Giro d’Italia route, which will be revealed soon, we’ll assess things internally and we’ll decide in consultation on what’s feasible physically and in terms of training.”

Evenepoel placed third overall at his debut Tour de France in 2024, but he abandoned this year’s race on the Col du Tourmalet. Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe prised him away from his contract at Soudal-QuickStep with an eye to making him their leader for the Tour, but the 2026 route does not play completely to Evenepoel’s strengths, with just one individual time trial on the course. 

“In principle, yes, although that’s not 100% certain yet,” Evenepoel said of his participation in the Tour, though he insisted he was not deterred by the route. “A bit atypical for the Tour. Difficult. A bit of everything, everywhere. But attractive. It will be another fun challenge. But there are other worthy goals.”

Some of those goals are obvious. Evenepoel confirmed that he will target both rainbow jerseys at the World Championships in Montreal, which essentially rules him out of returning to the Vuelta a España.

“We’re also keeping the World Championships at the end of the season in mind, because I want to be at my best there,” he said. “After the Tour, I’ll pull the plug again and then, via the GP de Québec and Montréal, among others, prepare for the Worlds in Canada.”

More surprisingly, Evenepoel didn’t rule out possible debuts at Milan-San Remo and the Tour of Flanders if he opts against making a tilt at the Giro and the Tour. In either scenario, Liège-Bastogne-Liège, which he won in 2022 and 2023, looks a fixed point on his calendar.

“Even with a Giro-Tour combo, something is possible in terms of one-day racing, but then the margin for error is smaller. But just long as it doesn’t come at the expense of the ideal route to the Tour,” Evenepoel said. 

“I also need to get used to my new teammates as quickly as possible, and vice versa. In that sense, it will be important to be able to ride a Paris-Nice and/or a Volta a Catalunya with them, for example. But once the Giro route is known, decisions will be made.”

The Giro route will be unveiled in Rome on December 1, but it is expected that the race will include a time trial in Piedmont wine country from Barbaresco to Barolo, while the final week will feature a demanding tappone in the Dolomites and a double ascent of Piancavallo on stage 20.

Jonas Vingegaard has already advertised his desire to ride the Giro in a bid to complete a full set of Grand Tour wins, though his Visma | Lease a Bike team has yet to confirm his 2026 programme.

Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) is the overwhelming favourite to win a fifth Tour de France in July, but the Slovenian is considered to unlikely to return to the Giro, which he won in 2024.

Evenepoel's new teammate Florian Lipowitz, third at this year's Tour, has hinted that he will return to the Grande Boucle in 2026 rather than make his Giro debut.

Evenepoel made his ill-starred Grand Tour debut at the Giro in 2021 in his first race back after his serious crash at the previous year’s edition of Il Lombardia. The Belgian returned in 2023, but he was forced to abandon the race while wearing the pink jersey after contracting COVID-19.

Evenepoel has already linked up with his new team at a planning meeting in Austria in October and he later travelled to Specialized’s wind tunnel in Morgan Hill with a delegation from the squad. 

He will join his Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe teammates for a training camp in Mallorca in December and he will train in Calpe in January before starting his season in late February.

“I won't start the season until February, with the Tour of the Algarve or the UAE Tour, depending on the team’s wishes,” Evenepoel said. “Definitely not any sooner.”