{"id":118981,"date":"2026-04-25T17:24:38","date_gmt":"2026-04-25T17:24:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/basketball.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2026\/04\/25\/double-champ-evenepoel-convinced-third-liege-is-within-reach\/"},"modified":"2026-04-25T17:24:38","modified_gmt":"2026-04-25T17:24:38","slug":"double-champ-evenepoel-convinced-third-liege-is-within-reach","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/basketball.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2026\/04\/25\/double-champ-evenepoel-convinced-third-liege-is-within-reach\/","title":{"rendered":"Double Champ Evenepoel Convinced Third Li\u00e8ge Is Within Reach"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Published April 25, 2026 11:24AM<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Things unraveled for Remco Evenepoel<\/a> during last year\u2019s Li\u00e8ge-Bastogne-Li\u00e8ge<\/a>, but the two-time winner is sounding altogether more confident this time around.<\/p>\n

The Belgian was just 59th twelve months ago, over three minutes behind the winner Tadej Poga\u010dar<\/a>. 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy hunger never goes away. Li\u00e8ge is one of my favorite races. I\u2019m going to race to try to win,\u201d the Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe rider said, laying out clear intentions in the pre-race press conference.<\/p>\n

\u201cI expect to last longer than last year. I start with more confidence and also simply in better shape.\u201d<\/p>\n

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<\/a>, where he outsprinted defending champion Matthias Skjelmose (Lidl-Trek) after blitzing the bunch on the climbs.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter the Tour of Flanders, I worked on the final details in Spain. In the Amstel, I immediately felt that it was in order,\u201d he said in the press conference, according to Sporza.<\/p>\n

He\u2019ll be hoping that his form has continued growing in the days since, and specifically passed up the chance of racing Fl\u00e8che Wallonne in order to be as good as possible on Sunday.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was not on the schedule anyway,\u201d he noted, even if he did say after his Amstel win last Sunday that he would consider riding the midweek race.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe purely thought about freshness. Fresh legs are the most important, knowing how early races explode nowadays.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018Really hard to learn anything\u2019 from Poga\u010dar\u2019s recent defeat<\/h2>\n
Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe\u2019s Remco Evenepoel and teammate Jan Tratnik do reconnaissance ahead of Li\u00e8ge-Bastogne-Li\u00e8ge (Photo: Jasper Jacobs \/ Belga \/ AFP)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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 Poga\u010dar himself.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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 pav\u00e9 and then outsprinted Poga\u010dar in the famed velodrome.<\/p>\n

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

Evenepoel can in theory take encouragement from Wout van Aert\u2019s defeat of Poga\u010dar in Roubaix, yet won\u2019t take anything for granted.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s hard to really learn anything from that,\u201d he said of that result.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn Strade and Flanders he finished alone and he won San Remo. That says enough.\u201d<\/p>\n

Evenepoel is clear as to what is the best possible scenario for his own chances on Sunday.<\/p>\n

\u201cI hope it will be pretty hard from when we go onto the first climb,\u201d he told CyclingPro.Net on Saturday. \u201cI 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

Playing down a phenom\u2019s prospects<\/h2>\n
\"Remco
Remco Evenepoel is one of the favorites for Li\u00e8ge-Bastogne-Li\u00e8ge (Photo: Eric Lalmand \/ Belga Mag via AFP)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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.<\/p>\n

The most recent of these was Wednesday\u2019s Fl\u00e8che Wallonne, where he simply rode his rivals off his wheel on the final ascent of the Mur de H\u00fby.<\/p>\n

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 Poga\u010dar\u2019s winning gap to one minute.<\/p>\n

However Evenepoel warns against the automatic presumption that he will be already ready to fight for the win.<\/p>\n

\u201cOf course, he has also never raced here,\u201d he said. \u201cHe is only 19 and it is 260 kilometers. Tadej and I already have a bit more stamina for this kind of races.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe also shouldn\u2019t be surprised if he struggles in the final hour. Racing for six hours is something different from racing for four hours.\u201d<\/p>\n

That said, though, he isn\u2019t ruling him out.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe is definitely among the top five to compete for the win here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Others for him to be wary of include Skjelmose, Tom Pidcock (Pinarello Q36.5 Pro Cycling), Christian Scaroni (XDS Astana Team), K\u00e9vin Vauquelin (Ineos Grenadiers) and Romain Gr\u00e9goire (Groupama-FDJ United).<\/p>\n

Sunday\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

If both of those boxes are ticked he believes he will right up there contending for the win.<\/p>\n

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Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Published April 25, 2026 11:24AM Things unraveled for Remco Evenepoel during last year\u2019s Li\u00e8ge-Bastogne-Li\u00e8ge, 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 Poga\u010dar. But the odds of him following up on his wins in 2022 and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":118982,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/basketball.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118981"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/basketball.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/basketball.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/basketball.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/basketball.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=118981"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/basketball.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118981\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/basketball.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/118982"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/basketball.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=118981"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/basketball.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=118981"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/basketball.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=118981"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}