'He's an intense guy, he prioritises winning' - What Red Bull learned from Evenepoel's debut season

The numbers are only ever a part of the story, of course, but they give an indication all the same. Remco Evenepoel’s debut season with Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe yielded 14 victories, including Amstel Gold Race, the European Championships road race and a fourth straight world time trial title.

More pertinently, given that this was year one of a long-term project built around July, Evenepoel produced his best Tour de France display yet, claiming two stage wins en route to second overall. He also enjoyed a boisterous Tour of Flanders debut, looking at ease on the cobbles as he cruised to third place.

But there were setbacks too. Evenepoel’s climbing was a recurring concern during the spring, and a distant third place at Liège-Bastogne-Liège didn’t gloss over a jarring off-day in the Ardennes. There were also very public misfires at the Worlds road race in Montreal and at Il Lombardia two weeks later.

As ever with Evenepoel, it’s all in the eye of the beholder, but the rider himself has decreed 2026 to be among the finest seasons of his career. Red Bull head of sports Zak Dempster agrees with the assessment, even if he conceded that there were plenty of lessons to be drawn from the first year of the collaboration.

“It’s been great to have him on board and get to know him,” Dempster told Domestique recently. “Even if it has been one of his most successful seasons, there are definitely learnings from this year that we can take into next season. We’re looking forward to continuing the journey.”

Evenepoel being Evenepoel, he is already working towards 2027 and beyond. The Belgian delayed his post-season holiday to travel to Specialized’s facility in California for wind tunnel testing, and he availed of the time in California to perform an early recon of the Los Angeles 2028 Olympics course.

It’s all just part of the show for one of the hardest working men in the bike business. Evenepoel left Soudal Quick-Step for Red Bull with the express aim of trying to win the Tour, and Ralph Denk retooled the management and supporting staff accordingly. 

Dempster, who had raced with the team in an earlier iteration, was brought across from Ineos last year to become Red Bull’s head of sports. One of the Australian’s biggest calls in his first year in the job was balancing the ambitions of the team’s GC men, and his division of labour saw Red Bull claim a podium spot in all three Grand Tours. 

Managing Evenepoel’s integration into a new set-up was the weightiest task of all, mind. Dempster smiled when asked what his team’s figurehead is like behind the scenes, noting that his attention to detail had set the tone for everybody else.  

“I mean, he’s an intense guy, you know, he really prioritises winning,” Dempster said. “So in everything he does, winning is at the forefront. I think that intensity he has for preparing and racing is infectious across the team, and everyone has definitely felt it.”

Evenepoel’s spell at Red Bull got off to a thunderous start when he led his new squad to victory in the Trofeo Ses Salines team time trial in January, and he followed up with two solo wins at Challenge Mallorca and a crushing triumph at the Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana.

There were mixed signals aplenty across the remainder of Evenepoel’s spring, however. His climbing was suspect at the UAE Tour and again at the Volta a Catalunya, though a crash also offered mitigation there. 

A podium at his debut Ronde and an assured Amstel Gold Race win suggested a corner had been turned, but Evenepoel was soundly beaten by Tadej Pogačar and Paul Seixas at Liège-Bastogne-Liège.

Dempster was reluctant to cite Evenepoel’s (not entirely) secret Tour of Flanders preparation as mitigation for his subdued climbing displays in the spring – “Possibly,” he said – but he conceded that the mixed displays in March and April prompted a rethink of the rider’s Tour build-up.

“He missed the mark in UAE and he didn’t win in Catalunya, but at the same time he was still always consistently winning races through that period,” Dempster said. “That definitely led to the decision, where we said, ‘Ok, let’s just take our time to build slowly towards the Tour.’ And I think it paid off in the end. But it’s really just been about learning about him as an athlete and what he needs to be at his best.”

Evenepoel didn’t race in May and June, opting to skip the Tour Auvergne-Rhône-Alps as he pared down his weight for the main event in July. That period coincided with the arrival of new coach Tim Heemskerk, who previously worked with Jonas Vingegaard, but the spell away from racing was lifted from a playbook Evenepoel had previously employed at Quick-Step en route to Vuelta a España victory in 2022.

Despite that triumph, Evenepoel’s credentials as a Grand Tour rider had been repeatedly questioned in the years since, especially after his abandon on the 2025 Tour. By Evenepoel’s own admission, placing second to Pogačar this July – and beating him to a summit finish at Plateau de Solaison - had helped him allay any doubts of his own.

“It had been a couple of years since he’d had the chance to ride a good GC, but at the same time, you can’t forget the interruptions he’d had since then,” Dempster said. “I think just getting a good, consistent training load in was very important. The decision to skip the Dauphiné was a really good one, and he got himself into maybe the best shape of his life. 

“To see him confirm that with the performances in the third week, even beating Pogačar on a mountain stage, was pretty special to see. It gives him and us confidence for the future.”

Evenepoel’s full 2027 programme won’t be unveiled until Red Bull’s media day in Mallorca on December 11, but some elements already look clear. With 71km of individual time trialling on the course and with a reduced quota of summit finishes, the Tour will surely be the centrepiece of Evenepoel’s season once again, and Denk has already downplayed the idea that the Belgian might ride the Giro d’Italia before setting his sights on July.

It remains to be seen how Red Bull will deploy Evenepoel across the opening months of the season, with so many goals vying for his attention. He will be keen to return to the Tour of Flanders after this year’s successful experiment, while there are whispers about a possible Paris-Roubaix debut. The overriding idea, Dempster suggested, is that Evenepoel will have space to build towards specific targets.

“I think into the future, we need Remco to be competitive in the biggest races, so I think his programme will look a bit different for next year,” Dempster said. “But at the same time, I think that first step of building was a really important one. The way he started the spring, for sure, wasn’t a real GC focus, but then the way that we could turn that around towards the Tour was a sign that we made good decisions.” 

A key element in Evenepoel’s Tour build-up was the extended break from competition that saw him forgo the Dauphiné, but that approach was also a consequence of circumstances, with his move to Red Bull informing his hefty slate of early-season racing. In 2026, Evenepoel had already amassed 25 race days by the end of April, and his programme is unlikely to be quite as heavy in the early part of 2027.

“Last year, it was pretty much full steam ahead from the December camp, and he wanted to prove himself by racing already in January in Mallorca,” Dempster said. “It’s going to be important this winter to give him a long, slow build, so he gets there a bit more robust. I think we can have him at a higher level than we did in the spring this year.”

The Evenepoel who arrived at the Grand Départ in Barcelona was notably gaunt in comparison with the rider who had laboured on the climbs in spring, and that detail would pay dividends in the Alps in the final week of the Tour. Hitting his optimum climbing weight at precisely the right time has been the most maddening part of the equation in Evenepoel’s Grand Tour career to date, but he appeared to have found the right balance in his first campaign at Red Bull.

“We’ve learned some things about him with how to get him to the right way to be competitive for sure, and I think he has learned too,” Dempster said. “He was really at his optimal weight, let’s say, but on top of that, it’s also what you do in the training beforehand.”

Evenepoel’s main character energy has made him one of cycling’s most compelling stories since he entered the pro peloton back in 2019, and his first season in Red Bull colours might just have been the most intriguing instalment of the saga yet. Season two will be essential viewing, and not just in July.

“Next year our focus will be on trying to win a Grand Tour, hopefully,” Dempster said. “But I definitely think he’s got a fair bit to say in the Classics, including at Flanders.”