Remco Evenepoel is already the story of Flanders – but can he win it too?

After all the doublespeak from Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe over the last few months, maybe it had to be seen to be believed. And so on Thursday morning, we find ourselves standing in the rain on a muddy hillside in the Flemish Ardennes, waiting for Remco.

Even though directeur sportif Sven Vanthourenhout had insisted earlier this week that Red Bull’s course recon had already been fixed months ago for the Friday before the Tour of Flanders, nobody was placing much credence in the messaging emanating from the team anymore.

The presence of a camera crew from Walloon broadcaster RTBF on the Oude Kwaremont is confirmation enough that we’re on the right track, and they pass the time by interviewing a group of three jovial bystanders on their thoughts about Remco Evenepoel’s Tour of Flanders debut.

As steady drizzle turns into something like a downpour, the three fans walk away towards their car, but they return a few minutes later with three umbrellas. They weren’t going to be deterred from their vigil by a drop of rain.

Experienced Italian photographer Stefano Sirotti has been in position since early morning shooting pictures of teams and riders out on their recon rides. Christophe Laporte has been through already, he tells us, but he’s heard that a truck carrying porta-loos has since blocked the Koppenberg, which would lead to delays for the rest.

As we wait, groups of cyclo-tourists of varying levels of commitment splutter and clatter their way past us as they crest the summit in varying degrees of distress. Don’t try this at home, folks. Some of them stop to see what stars have been out on the Ronde course behind them, while a forklift operator scoots back and forth across the road as the VIP tent at the summit takes shape for Sunday’s race.

In time, the pros began to zip past, pedalling smooth circles even as their bikes bounce beneath them. Lotto Intermarché roll by in twos and threes, with Paul Magnier and Soudal Quick-Step following soon afterwards. Lotte Kopecky blasts past at a considerable rate of knots, eager to test herself on the climb rather than simply familiarise herself with the state of its cobbles.

Eventually, a Red Bull car pulls up, and a member of their social media team clambers out bearing a camera. Showtime. He asks RTBF’s cameraman to step out of his shot, and admirably, the RTBF cameraman politely resists the temptation to tell him to get stuffed. A compromise is found and both men are in position to capture the moment for posterity.

Shortly afterwards, Evenepoel and his Red Bull teammates glide up the rain-slicked cobbles. “There’s Remco, there’s Remco!” one of the original trio of Belgian fans shouts to her friends. There he is indeed. We watch him cruise towards the top of the Kwaremont and swing onto the descent towards the Paterberg. It’s true after all.

The show ends and everybody bar Sirotti, here to shoot every team on the course, heads their separate ways. Evenepoel will do it for keeps on Sunday, but after all the denials, his very presence in the Flemish Ardennes had to be seen to be believed. 

When Tadej Pogačar won Milan-Sanremo two weeks ago, dropping Mathieu van der Poel on the Poggio in the process, the script for this Tour of Flanders looked a familiar one. But the usual forecast of another Pogačar procession has been clouded somewhat by developments over the last fortnight.

It started when Wout van Aert began to find a semblance of his old self, first by stealing away to third in Sanremo and then by jousting with Van der Poel at Gent-Wevelgem. Flemish hearts were set aflutter still further by Van Aert’s impressive near miss at Dwars door Vlaanderen in midweek. Maybe, just maybe.

By then, of course, the bombshell had landed. Remco and the Ronde, the union thought impossible for so long in these parts, was suddenly a reality. Old interviews in which a teenage Evenepoel joked about his aversion to cobblestones were republished. Old pros were wheeled out to weigh in on Evenepoel’s prospects on Sunday. 

Journalists who had wondered what on earth was still left to say about Pogačar’s preternatural greatness now had a rich new seam to mine. The Belgian media has been all Remco, all the time since Wednesday’s announcement.

Even Pogačar’s arrival via private jet in Wevelgem on Thursday night and his surprise appearance on Sporza’s ‘Vive le Vélo’ was a mere footnote in Friday’s newspapers. Sure, the world champion performs miracles on a bi-weekly basis, but is he more box office than Remco? Not here. 

A beaming Evenepoel duly featured as the main cover photo in both Het Nieuwsblad and HetLaatste Nieuws. Het Nieuwsblad reported how Evenepoel and his teammates had stopped during their recon in a bakery near Kluisbergen. Perhaps Evenepoel was drawn by the handwritten sign outside advertising that the last free tart in the shop had been set aside for Van Aert.

It might have been a bit on the nose had Evenepoel scoffed it before Van Aert’s Friday recon. He had already stolen enough headlines from his compatriot over the past 48 hours, he could leave him his pastry. According to owner Sofie Teetaert, Evenepoel amiably paid for éclairs for the Red Bull crew before setting off on his way.

But what impact will Evenepoel have on Van Aert and on the race itself on Sunday? Visma | Lease a Bike head of sport Grischa Niermann’s initial feeling was that Evenepoel’s presence would be a net benefit for Van Aert. “It’s good for us if another strong guy comes there,” Niermann told us on Wednesday. “It’s another card that plays a role, so I think it’s a good thing.”

The thought was echoed by Van der Poel on Friday. The Dutchman has spent the days since Gent-Wevelgem training in Spain and, in keeping with his usual Ronde routine, he opted against a pre-race press conference, limiting himself to a statement released by his Alpecin-Premier Tech team.

“I’m glad he’s at the start. The more strong riders there are, the faster the race opens up,” Van der Poel said. “That’s not a disadvantage for me.”

Evenepoel’s lack of experience on the cobbles and those old questions about his bike-handling and positioning hover over his Ronde bid, though he was bullish about his prospects when he met the press on Friday afternoon.

“During the Covid lockdown, I came here to train twice a week, so in terms of course knowledge, I don’t think I am behind everyone else,” said Evenepoel, who was of the belief that scrambling for position would be of increasingly minor importance in the finale of the race. “If I didn’t think I could win, I wouldn’t be starting here.”

In the Parkhotel in Waregem, meanwhile, Pogačar conceded that Evenepoel’s “unpredictable” racing style would add to what he termed as the “stress factor” of the Tour of Flanders.

Evenepoel’s presence certainly adds an intriguing variable to the Tour of Flanders, right when we risked becoming a little too familiar – or even jaded – with the preferred strategies of the main contenders. The cycling world was braced for another attritional afternoon leading in a steady drumbeat towards yet another Pogačar-Van der Poel duel on the Kwaremont. 

The addition of Evenepoel to the top of the bill changes that dynamic completely. Another Pogačar-Van der Poel joust remains the most likely outcome, but Evenepoel’s sense of adventure might force them to approach the race differently. It certainly gives them something else to think about and it’s given the rest of us plenty more to talk about. 

After Pogačar’s Milan-Sanremo victory, the Classics risked becoming a predictable monologue from the Slovenian. The Tour of Flanders, at least in theory, suddenly promises to produce a conversation that can fly off in any direction. Evenepoel isn’t a top tier favourite, but he should be in the mix. 

Still, we might need to see it to believe it.