Remco Evenepoel eyes historic World Championships goal: ‘It has never happened’

Remco Evenepoel wants to win both the time trial and the road race at the same World Championships in Montréal, something no male rider has done. 

In fact, alongside Abraham Olano, Evenepoel is the only rider to have won both events at any point in his career in the elite men's category, let alone in the same season.

The Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe rider defends his time trial title on 20 September before the road race a week later, having already won both at the Paris Olympics in 2024.

"How often has a rider won both the time trial and the road race at the same World Championship? Never," Evenepoel said to Sporza. 

"That was my goal last year, and it is again this year. It is something I want to do in my career. It has already been done at the Olympic Games, but at a World Championship it is different, because then you get those two jerseys."

He arrives in Canada off an altitude camp that followed his record fourth Clásica San Sebastián on 1 August, and says the weather there was deliberate preparation.

"It is always harder to manage a training camp at altitude, but I have nothing to complain about. I went through wind and rain to be prepared for rain races as well. That was necessary after two weeks in the heat," he said. "Now I just want to push myself into the red a few more times as a stimulus for the World Championships."

The Grand Prix Cycliste de Québec on Friday and Montréal on Sunday are the vehicles for that, though he has already framed both as preparation rather than targets. He rode them once before, in his neo-pro season in 2019, finishing 99th in Québec and 55th in Montréal.

Québec has changed since then, and he thinks it now suits him better. "The first time I was here, the classic punchers still won. Now the climbers can achieve slightly better results here as well. Now that the final climb has been modified, it really is better for me. It is now slightly steeper than before and still 1.8 kilometres long."

The travel is the complication. "The journey and the jet lag really make that race special. I might feel a bit worse on Friday or Sunday because of that."

He is also clear about the order of priority. "I'd rather win in Montreal in three weeks than this coming weekend."

Tadej Pogačar's absence, after the crash that ended his Vuelta a España with concussion, a fractured collarbone and a fractured vertebra, changes the shape of the road race and the European Championships that follow. Evenepoel is careful about how he puts it.

"The rider who dominated all the previous championships is indeed not participating this time. That doesn't make the road to the title any easier, but an obstacle has been removed," he said. The Europeans matter to him too. "I thought of that immediately, because that prize is still missing from my palmarès."

He also made contact with Pogačar, waiting until the extent of the injuries was known.

"I waited, because I know it's not fun to receive 100,000 messages at the moment itself. But when I knew that all the injuries were known, I sent a message to wish him a good recovery."

Belgium go to Montréal with Evenepoel and Wout van Aert as joint leaders, each with a designated support rider, and Evenepoel sees no difficulty in that.

"It is a logical tactic to have two spearheads. Wout has also won a lot already and is now showing that he is in very good form. So it is always a bit safer to fall back on two riders