Red Bull believe leaner Evenepoel is ready to face his Tourmalet demons

This time, Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe are trying not to treat the Tourmalet as a curse. They see it instead as the first proper test of a carefully rebuilt Evenepoel.

“We should not focus too much on the idea that the Tourmalet is some black monster for Remco,” sports director Klaas Lodewyck told In de Leiderstrui. “He has already climbed much harder mountains very well, so we should focus on where he is now and look forward.”

Where he is now is noticeably lighter, calmer and, according to Red Bull, exactly where the team wanted him to be.

Evenepoel arrived at the Tour in Barcelona with a sharper face and a leaner frame. Asked before the race how much weight he had lost, the Belgian said it was “almost 4kg”. The figure instantly became one of the talking points of the Grand Départ, especially because Evenepoel insisted the reduction had not come at the cost of power.

“My weight has gone down, but the power has stayed,” he told Sporza last week.

That balance has been central to Red Bull’s plan since the spring. Evenepoel had not raced since finishing third at Liège-Bastogne-Liège, meaning he started the Tour after 68 days without competition. Rather than send him to a traditional June stage race, Red Bull chose a long and tightly controlled altitude programme, first in Sierra Nevada and then through further Tour specific work.

For performance director Patxi Vila, the logic was simple. Racing brings rhythm, but also uncertainty. Training camp brings control.

“We wanted to keep control of the load, the stimulus, the progress and the process,” Vila said in May to DH Les Sports. “We wanted to prepare Remco down to the millimetre for the Tour.”

That meant long climbing rides, time trial work, carefully managed intensity and, crucially, a gradual move away from the more explosive shape Evenepoel carried through his spring campaign. 

Red Bull wanted him strong enough for the classics in April, then light enough for the high mountains in July.

Lodewyck believes the team found that balance. “We took our time and did nothing in a rush, in close consultation with the nutrition coaches and trainers,” he said. “We found a balance where Remco can also maintain this weight.”

The Belgian sports director admitted he had rarely seen Evenepoel this lean. That may have cost him a little sharpness in the opening days, but Red Bull see it as part of a bigger Tour strategy. This year’s route becomes brutally difficult in the second and third weeks, and the team believe Evenepoel needed this body composition to be competitive deep into the race.

After five stages, the signs are encouraging. Evenepoel sits 23 seconds behind Pogačar and Vingegaard, but ahead of the other general classification contenders. He also came through the team time trial with confidence and without obvious signs of rust, despite his long absence from racing.

“So far, so good,” Lodewyck said. “Everything looks positive. On days like stage 5 you always have to be careful and make sure the nutrition is right all day. If all those things are in place, you can go into stage 6 with confidence.”

Stage 6 will offer the first clear answer. The route through the Pyrenees features the Col d’Aspin, the Tourmalet and a summit finish in Gavarnie-Gèdre, with almost 4,200 metres of climbing. It is the sort of day on which UAE Emirates-XRG can be expected to put the race under immediate pressure, especially with Pogačar already looking powerful and aggressive.

“It seems clear to me that UAE will go for the stage and for time gains again,” Lodewyck said. “They do what they want. We have to stay in the wheel for as long as possible.”

For Evenepoel, this is a public test of Red Bull’s first full Tour project around him. After weeks of controlled preparation, their leaner leader now returns to the climb that has exposed him before.

The Tourmalet will show whether Evenepoel is a genuine Grand Tour threat, or whether the mountain remains his old demon.