Evenepoel, on Thursday, at the presentation of the Giro in Pescara.Gian Mattia D’Alberto/LaPresse (LAPRESSE)
Even when they’re not thinking, cyclists are pedaling against the past and the future, against those who came before them, against those to come. Like Eddy Merckx 45 years ago, a 22-year-old boy with a rainbow on his chest, wiping out the past in front of the Tre Cime di Lavaredo, Cima Piccola, Cima Grande, Cima Oeste, like the falling snow blurring the road he followed and climbed , he pledged the future, like Remco Evenepoel, 23, who will start Saturday’s Giro on a cycle path along the Adriatic Sea that will take him on Friday May 26 in front of the same mountains, three sharp teeth in the Belluno Dolomites , on the way to the Auronzo hut, 2,304 meters, with the memory of the cannibal, with the wishes of the fans.
From May 6th to 28th • 21 stages • 3,449 km
Marina Fossacesia – Ortona
Capua-Gran Sasso d’Italia
Savignano sul Rubicone-Cesena
Borgofranco d’Ivrea – Crans Montana
Sabbio Chiese-Monte Bondone
Pergine Valsugana Caorle
Longarone – Three Peaks of Lavaredo
Source: Tour of Italy.
THE COUNTRY
From May 6th to 28th • 21 stages • 3,449 km
Marina Fossacesia – Ortona
Capua-Gran Sasso d’Italia
Savignano sul Rubicone-Cesena
Borgofranco d’Ivrea – Crans Montana
Sabbio Chiese-Monte Bondone
Pergine Valsugana Caorle
Longarone – Three Peaks of Lavaredo
Source: Tour of Italy.
THE COUNTRY
From May 6th to 28th • 21 stages • 3,449 km
Marina Fossacesia – Ortona
100
1,400
1,400
3,500
2,400
2,800
4,000
2,500
fifty
2,400
2,100
2,300
5,100
1,600
3,600
5,200
300
3,700
5,400
1,050
400
Capua-Gran Sasso d’Italia
Savignano sul Rubicone-Cesena
Borgofranco d’Ivrea – Crans Montana
Sabbio Chiese-Monte Bondone
Pergine Valsugana Caorle
Longarone – Three Peaks of Lavaredo
Source: Tour of Italy.
THE COUNTRY
In a distant galaxy, a Sun-sized star devours in one bite a planet 30 times the size of Earth, and the results are an explosion of light and energy.
A child prodigy, Evenepoel’s path to this point is as predestined as Merckx’s, and he will not make his Tour debut until the age of 24, having completed two Giros. The road book was drawn by Patrick Lefévère, owner of Soudal-Quick Step, an idealistic ideologue who transformed his team, king of the northern classics, of Flanders and Roubaix, of Museeuw and Boonen, allergic to mountains, single leader set for big tours, for Evenepoel and with him Cattaneo, Van Wilder, Serry, Vervaeke, Grow Up and Hirt, with climbers and all. “I can’t go on tour with ambitions without having a prepared team,” says Evenepoel. “I have to build myself and my team at the same time.” Merckx had his Faema, his Molteni, soldiers with no ambitions other than those of their owner. That’s how it should be, that’s how it should be. Only then will he be ready to enter the true terrain, the Pyrenees and Alps of the Tour, where monsters like Tadej Pogacar and Jonas Vingegaard rule with their jumbo jets.
The Giro is a dress rehearsal with 55 kilometers of flat time trials in the first nine days, a red carpet that Italy rolled out for him at his summons, for which he is grateful. “My goal is to win on day one [el sábado, 20 kilómetros de ciclovía turística por la llamada costa de los Trabocchi, palafitos de pesca cimentados sobre el Adriático en las playas, y después, el 14 de mayo, domingo, 35, siempre en la costa adriática, por la serena Romaña], even if there are super specialists like Filippo Ganna or Stefan Küng, and get the maximum advantage,” says the Belgian, whose last published training session is on the Calpe coast, where he lives and sleeps in a low-pressure chamber that simulates the altitude he was 100 kilometers on a goat, over two hours with a horizontal back and a 90-degree pelvis. “I’m not worried about getting the pink jersey on day one. There will be a break where we can give up… Because the Giro will be won in the last week in the mountains, but I want to come away with an advantage.”
The last week is Monte Bondone de la Nieve and Charly Gaul, the Three Peaks of Merckx, and another time trial, the last Saturday, half flat goat, half easy bike climbing, on Monte Lussari, between Friuli and Slovenia. different gift
Like Merckx, the first Giro was not won by him. suffered it. 20th May, 2021. Evenepoel returned to cycling after nine months of surgeries, hospitalization, accelerated returns and relapses to overcome the fractured pelvis and femur he suffered when he fell off a bridge on August 15, 20, the Lombardy of the pandemic . At the Giro, which he approached in fear with his eyes closed, Egan Bernal tormented him, punished him, made him lose his temper. He gave up what was considered the grand duel of the cyclists of the future. Egan won, just as he had won the Tour two years earlier, but the Colombian was no longer the cyclist of the future. A serious accident in January 2022 still has him following his full recovery. For his part, Evenepoel later became a star with an appetite to devour planets. One Tour, two Liege, one World Cup.
In the age of the glowing prodigy, races are duels. Van der Poel vs Van Aert: Pogacar vs Van Aert, vs Van der Poel, vs Vingegaard, vs Evenepoel… The turn of Evenepoel’s fate challenge could be the turn of the unfinished duel between the cannibals that started in the last tour Belgians and his rainbow on his chest, and Primoz Roglic, the 33-year-old Slovenian, the mad ski jumper who only has seven in the elite – who he performed, right, in the Giro del 16, scaring Tom Dumoulin in the prologue – and it seems he has been there all his life and he lost the Vuelta to Evenepoel which he had abandoned about two months earlier due to a crash and a year earlier he had also abandoned tours 22 and 21 due to a crash at the second Giro he ran, that of 2019, he spent five days in pink thinking that the best Italian, Vincenzo Nibali, winner in 13th and 16th place, was the only enemy. Ecuadorian Richard Carapaz could do both. On the last climb, Monte Avena, the Slovenian fans organized a chain to push him up, he was so lazy and depressed. He finished third. After the last Vuelta, Evenepoel’s paths crossed again in the last Volta, which was broken up with daily sprint results between the two. Roglic was always faster who won for bonuses. minimal consolation He ran no more than Tirreno and Volta in 2023, 14 days, always a win. In April the Teide. Evenepoel already knows what he has to do. “They always ask me if I like to win by attacking from a distance because it’s more spectacular that way,” says Evenepoel, who came to cycling very late after thriving as a youth player for the Belgian soccer team. “Of course not for that. I attack when I feel strong, even from a distance, because I always like to win, and if I don’t do it when I come to the sprint with others, I never win.”
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