Surprise Remco Evenepoel entry spices up Tour of Flanders battle

Ghent – Double Olympic champion Remco Evenepoel’s surprise decision to race in the Tour of Flanders on April 5 has spiced up the expected titanic battle against three of the peloton’s fastest riders.

The Belgian and his Red Bull-Bora Hansgrohe team provided a twist on the April Fool’s theme on April 1, when he made the shock announcement that he would be making his De Ronde debut.

With world champion Tadej Pogacar coming back to defend his title, Mathieu van der Poel aiming for a record fourth success, and a resurgent Wout van Aert on the starting line, fans are dreaming of a shoot-out between four of cycling’s top stars.

Evenepoel’s biggest rivals are delighted that he will take part.

Pogacar, the four-time Tour de France champion, said on April 3: “It’s good to have a rider like Remco always wanting to go from far... and always on the attack.

“We saw the last few races, he always goes for the win no matter what.

“He can do a really great race on Sunday.

“He’s in good shape and definitely a rider to look (out) for, for his long-range attacks, and just not (to) let him out of sight.”

Despite never having raced any of the major cobbled classics, Evenepoel knows these roads well as he grew up in the Flanders region.

And it is his attacking style that has his rivals salivating.

“We definitely shouldn’t underestimate Remco. And yes, I’m glad he’s at the start,” said van der Poel, widely regarded as one of the greatest cobbled classics specialists of all time.

“The more strong riders there are, the faster the race opens up. That’s not a disadvantage for me.”

Van Aert also feels that Evenepoel’s inclusion could work in his favour.

“What I like about him, is that he’s always attacking and he makes the race,” said van Aert. “That’s how I see myself, and that can work well.”

Evenepoel, whose form this season has been patchy, knows he has his work cut out to try to add his name to the list of Flanders laureates.

“Mathieu and Tadej are the big favourites: they’ve won five of the last six editions,” said Evenepoel, who was a promising footballer and long-distance runner in his youth.

“But if I’m there, it’s because I feel that I can win.”

Should van der Poel take the honours, he would become the first rider to win De Ronde four times and match Belgian great Tom Boonen’s record of seven cobbled Monument victories.

“Of course I’m aware of that, and it would be something very special,” he said.

Like his rivals, he has had a great start to 2026, winning two cobbled classics in Omloop Het Nieuwsblad and E3 Saxo Classic, while coming close to another at In Flanders Fields.

For van Aert, Pogacar has the edge on van der Poel, and both of them are head and shoulders above the competition at Flanders.

“We forget very quickly because Pogacar was ridiculously superior to everyone at Strade Bianche and Milan-San Remo,” said the Belgian, whose only Monument victory came in San Remo in 2020.

Van Aert has won a host of one-day classics in the past – if only one Monument – and came 100 metres from winning Dwars door Vlaanderen on April 1 after a 40km breakaway.

Pogacar is himself chasing history.

Two weeks ago, he won Milan-San Remo for the first time, meaning the only one of the five Monuments missing from his trophy cabinet is next week’s Paris-Roubaix.

Given that he will start as the favourite in three of the four remaining Monuments this season – and maybe too at Paris-Roubaix – he could yet become not just the fourth man to achieve the Grand Slam, but also the first to do it in a single calendar year.

And finally winning San Remo at the sixth attempt lifted a weight off his shoulders.

“Maybe I didn’t realise before the race that it was a little bit bothering me,” he said.

“I realised a few days after San Remo that it was a kind of relief.” AFP