Remco Evenepoel makes perfect start but real tests are still to come

In previous generations, we would have wondered if Remco Evenepoel was hitting form too soon, but those concerns don’t really exist anymore in the supersonic 2020s. The Belgian’s early flexes at the Challenge Mallorca and Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana are simply what we have come to expect from the so-called ‘aliens’ of the current peloton. When they race, they usually win.

“This is the new cycling,” Cristiano Scaroni said after he had come in third behind a rampant Evenepoel at the Trofeo Serra Tramuntana the other week. He spoke with resignation rather than with rancour. Like everybody who pinned on a number that day, he knew beforehand that Evenepoel was going to do Evenepoel things, and so it proved.

As expected, Evenepoel made a perfect start to life at Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe in Mallorca, leading his new companions to team time trial victory in the Trofeo Ses Salines and then notching up two solo wins of his own.

The Volta Comunitat Valenciana offered more robust opposition, with João Almeida (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) leading a much deeper slate of challengers, but not even the wind-enforced neutralisation of the time trial could blow Evenepoel off course.

Inevitably, he still won that time trial because, well, Remco’s gonna Remco, and he followed up with another exhibition on stage 4 by burning everybody off his wheel on the Cumbre del Sol to take a permanent hold on the overall lead. 

In his first eight race days with Red Bull, Evenepoel has already racked up five wins plus a team time trial victory. He’s made a habit of fast starts to his seasons over the years, but his 2026 vintage seems especially remorseless about the endeavour. 

Maybe it’s the new environment, maybe it’s a desire to put himself firmly above Florian Lipowitz in the Red Bull hierarchy or maybe it’s simply that he’s enjoyed an injury-free winter. Whatever the reason, Evenepoel has hit the ground running.

“Cyborg Evenepoel,” read the headline in AS after his Cumbre del Sol solo, but that does the Belgian a slight disservice. While the cyclist has been metronomic, the man himself remains mercifully human. 

In an era when Tadej Pogačar has at times seemed bored of his own dominance and when Jonas Vingegaard has appeared ever more wary of the spotlight, Evenepoel gives the pleasing impression that he still enjoys being Evenepoel. He remains a rider who sees racing less as an obligation and more as an opportunity to put on an exhibition. 

Red Bull have paid top dollar for cycling’s great showman, and the early previews suggest that Evenepoel will give them bang for their buck.

Even so, Evenepoel’s early-season onslaught comes with an obvious caveat. Given that his stated aim is to win the Tour de France during his time at Red Bull, his yardstick isn’t João Almeida in February, it’s Pogačar in July. 

And while Evenepoel has been hugely impressive in jumping through all the necessary hoops in Mallorca and Valencia, it’s far too soon to say if he will be able to get any closer to Pogačar this July than he did on his Tour debut in 2024, when he placed a resolute but still distant third overall.

Speaking to Daniel Benson in Mallorca, Evenepoel suggested that second place might be the realistic summit of his ambitions in year one of the Red Bull project, but that would still involve the considerable task of overhauling Jonas Vingegaard in the Grand Tour hierarchy.

The UAE Tour later this month should have given an early indication of Evenepoel’s prospects on that score, only for Vingegaard to withdraw last week, citing recent injury and illness. Their duel has now been postponed until the Volta a Catalunya, but Evenepoel will still face a stiff challenge for supremacy in the Emirates, with Isaac del Toro (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) entering the fray.

Indeed, Evenepoel’s 2026 schedule seems almost like that of a boxer working his way through contests with challengers of increasing ability until he finally gets a shot at the champion himself. With his every race and every win this season, speculation will inevitably mount regarding Evenepoel’s prospects against Pogačar.

The harsh evidence of last Autumn suggests that Pogačar remains firmly in a different class to all others for the time being, though on Sunday in Valencia, Evenepoel hinted that he has begun to remedy one of his admitted shortcomings against the Slovenian, namely his ability to sustain an acceleration. 

At the European Championships and Il Lombardia last year, Pogačar travelled to a place Evenepoel simply couldn’t reach when he launched his race-winning moves. In his Red Bull era, Evenepoel will hope he can find the coordinates to follow him. 

“I can attack hard and then keep going,” he said on Sunday. “The hard work this winter is already paying off.”

That certainly looks to be the case, but these early exhibitions are still no guarantee of summer success, not in the Pogačar era. Evenepoel knows the real tests are still to come.