Double Champ Evenepoel Convinced Third Liège Is Within Reach

Things unraveled for Remco Evenepoel during last year’s Liège-Bastogne-Liège, but the two-time winner is sounding altogether more confident this time around.

The Belgian was just 59th twelve months ago, over three minutes behind the winner Tadej Pogačar. But the odds of him following up on his wins in 2022 and 2023 this year have increased due to what he sure is better form.

“My hunger never goes away. Liège is one of my favorite races. I’m going to race to try to win,” the Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe rider said, laying out clear intentions in the pre-race press conference.

“I expect to last longer than last year. I start with more confidence and also simply in better shape.”

Evenepoel is in his first year as a Red Bull rider and has already racked up eight victories. The most recent of these was success last weekend in the Amstel Gold Race, where he outsprinted defending champion Matthias Skjelmose (Lidl-Trek) after blitzing the bunch on the climbs.

That came on back of a third place in his first ever Tour of Flanders, and he has a feeling that things are on the up.

“After the Tour of Flanders, I worked on the final details in Spain. In the Amstel, I immediately felt that it was in order,” he said in the press conference, according to Sporza.

He’ll be hoping that his form has continued growing in the days since, and specifically passed up the chance of racing Flèche Wallonne in order to be as good as possible on Sunday.

“That was not on the schedule anyway,” he noted, even if he did say after his Amstel win last Sunday that he would consider riding the midweek race.

“We purely thought about freshness. Fresh legs are the most important, knowing how early races explode nowadays.”

‘Really hard to learn anything’ from Pogačar’s recent defeat

Of course, as good as Evenepoel feels when compared to a year ago, his chances of victory depend on other elements too. Having good luck, or the absence of bad luck, is one of those. So too making the right tactical decisions. But probably the biggest factor is the form of his rivals, including Pogačar himself.

The Slovenian has raced sparingly this season, only competing on four occasions. But he has won three of those, hitting the finish first in Strade Bianche, Milan-San Remo and the Ronde van Vlaanderen.

The UAE Emirates-XRG rider was arguably the strongest rider in Paris-Roubaix, hammering the pace on cobbled sector after sector. However Wout van Aert (Visma-Lease a Bike) conserved his strength by doing fewer turns on the pavé and then outsprinted Pogačar in the famed velodrome.

Still, a 75 percent win race is extraordinary and, having pulled back from competition after April 12th, the Slovenian will be raring to go.

Evenepoel can in theory take encouragement from Wout van Aert’s defeat of Pogačar in Roubaix, yet won’t take anything for granted.

“It’s hard to really learn anything from that,” he said of that result.

“In Strade and Flanders he finished alone and he won San Remo. That says enough.”

Evenepoel is clear as to what is the best possible scenario for his own chances on Sunday.

“I hope it will be pretty hard from when we go onto the first climb,” he told CyclingPro.Net on Saturday. “I think it is 94k to go, more or less, when we hit the Cote de Wanne. From there on I hope the race will start to get harder and be open. And then everybody knows it is the climbs where this race is usually decided.

“I don’t see any other scenario this year. It will just be up to me to be there with the legs, to race smart as well. And to try to go for it.”

Playing down a phenom’s prospects

Much has been made of Paul Seixas in recent days. The Frenchman is still just 19 years of age but is on a real roll this year with seven wins.

The most recent of these was Wednesday’s Flèche Wallonne, where he simply rode his rivals off his wheel on the final ascent of the Mur de Hûy.

Prior to that he took three stages and the overall in Itzulia Basque Country, and his runner-up slot in Strade Bianche saw him limit Pogačar’s winning gap to one minute.

However Evenepoel warns against the automatic presumption that he will be already ready to fight for the win.

“Of course, he has also never raced here,” he said. “He is only 19 and it is 260 kilometers. Tadej and I already have a bit more stamina for this kind of races.”

“We also shouldn’t be surprised if he struggles in the final hour. Racing for six hours is something different from racing for four hours.”

That said, though, he isn’t ruling him out.

“He is definitely among the top five to compete for the win here.”

Others for him to be wary of include Skjelmose, Tom Pidcock (Pinarello Q36.5 Pro Cycling), Christian Scaroni (XDS Astana Team), Kévin Vauquelin (Ineos Grenadiers) and Romain Grégoire (Groupama-FDJ United).

Sunday’s race is sure to be simultaneously complicated and dramatic, but Evenepoel will hope it boils down to two things: a very tough edition, raced hard, and also stomping form on the day.

If both of those boxes are ticked he believes he will right up there contending for the win.