Remco Evenepoel arrived in Belgium late on Thursday night after three weeks of hard labour atop Mount Teide with the Giro d’Italia in mind, but by Friday afternoon, he had already delivered a tacit message ahead of this weekend’s appointment with Tadej Pogačar at Liège-Bastogne-Liège.
Rather than simply feather his way through Soudal-QuickStep’s recon of the finale, Evenepoel couldn’t resist running through his scales on the familiar, friendly confines of the Côte de La Redoute, the launchpad for his winning attack a year ago. His time on the climb, it emerged later, was the quickest of the day on Strava. “Seen this, Tadej?” trilled the headline in Het Nieuwsblad.
Perhaps more than a message to Pogačar, Evenepoel’s effort on La Redoute was a way of assuaging any doubts of his own. Recent history has shown, after all, that preparing at altitude for the Giro is hardly compatible with racing for victory in Liège. The last man to win Liège-Bastogne-Liège and then ride the Giro was Alexandre Vinokourov back in 2010.
Then again, that kind of caveat, rarely seems to apply to Evenepoel. Last August, for instance, he shoehorned the Clàsica San Sebastiàn into his calendar amid blocks of altitude work before the Vuelta a España and he duly claimed a crushing solo victory. Speaking to reporters on Friday afternoon, he downplayed the idea that his build-up put him at a disadvantage against Pogačar.
“My preparation was completely for the Giro, but Liège is a big test like San Sebastian was last year, it’s good to have a big race day to find some rhythm,” said Evenepoel, who won La Doyenne at the first attempt last year. “I’ve prepared well and in the last week my work has been aimed towards on Liège, before I start focusing on the Giro again from Monday.
“I did a lot of endurance work in Tenerife anyway, and in Liège it’s the fifth and sixth hours of racing that count. At the end of a big Classic like Liège, the legs do the talking, and the kind of preparation you’ve had beforehand won’t count for much.”
Evenepoel’s mode of preparation isn’t the only difference as he returns to defend his title at Liège-Bastogne-Liège. His status, his rivals and the route itself have all changed since this time twelve months ago. The rainbow jersey on his back, Evenepoel suggested, will be a help rather than a hindrance in his first race on Belgian roads this year – “maybe it will give me a few extra watts” – while he was enthusiastic, too, about the alterations to the course.
Last year, Evenepoel launched his winning attack on the false flat over the top of La Redoute, but that section is excised from the parcours in 2023. Instead, the race swings right atop La Redoute and almost directly into the Côte de Cornémont, while the Côte des Forges has also been added before the usual final ascent of the Roche-aux-Faucons.
“It’s quite a short answer, but it looks amazing, I like it,” Evenepoel said of the modified finale. “It’s much harder than the last years, especially with the unofficial climb after La Redoute, it’s a hard one. The final is way harder than it has been for the past ten or fifteen editions, it looks nice.
“It’s going to be a completely different strategy. With this extra 5 or 10k towards the Côte des Forges, it’s always up and down, and there’s also a 2km climb after La Redoute, so that makes it a longer final, beginning from the Côte de Wanne or maybe even from Petit-Thier. I think it’s going to be a very long final and if the weather is like they predict, with a tailwind, then it’s going to be a very hard final starting from… Bastogne.”
Pogačar
The presence of Pogačar will also surely be a factor in Evenepoel and Soudal-QuickStep’s strategy, even if he tried to insist that the Slovenian was simply one rival among many. Pogačar, winner of Liège-Bastogne-Liège in 2021, missed last year’s race following the death of his fiancée Urška Žigart’s mother.
“We’re not looking at anybody, we’re looking at our own race. We have a plan for our own, and we are confident we can win this race,” Evenepoel said. “There are a lot of guys in good shape, but I think it’s quite logical Tadej Pogačar is the main favourite, but I know I’m in a very good shape, so I will be ready to compete.”
During his time at altitude in Tenerife, Evenepoel found himself sharing the Parador Hotel with his Giro rival Primož Roglič and his Jumbo-Visma team. “In the breakfast and dinner room, I had to pass their table to go to my table, so every morning and every evening, it was good morning and goodnight,” said Evenepoel, who explained that he tended to ride early on Sundays so as to be in front of a television for the Classics.
The Belgian was coy about the prospect of bolstering Soudal-QuickStep’s cobbled Classics unit next Spring – “Next year, maybe. Or in two, three, four or five years, I don’t know” – but he was firmer in downplaying the idea that Pogačar’s form had begun to tail off in the weeks since his solo victory at the Tour of Flanders, pointing to his victories at Amstel Gold Race and Flèche Wallonne this past week.
“He’s been on the top level for a very long period, so we can say it’s very impressive,” Evenepoel said. “Doing two races a week, it’s not easy to keep up the shape but I think a guy like Tadej is a big talent, a big champion, he can keep it up."
Pogačar has already seen off riders of the quality of Jonas Vingegaard, Wout van Aert, Mathieu van der Poel and Tom Pidcock over the course of the spring. Evenepoel belatedly enters the game in Liège, where he looks the only rider in a position to stop him.
"To be in the biggest Classic of the year as one of the two favourites is something special, an honour," Evenepoel said. "I just have to stay calm now and believe in my ability."
That includes backing himself even if he finds himself sprinting for the win with the nominally quicker Pogačar.
“Of course, it would be best if I arrived alone, but I'm not afraid to sprint against Pogačar. Roglič has already managed to win a sprint from him, and I have already beaten Roglič,” Evenepoel said, and then smiled.
“At the finish, the best is already gone for everyone. Then it becomes a sprint between dying swans. Hopefully I will be the least dead swan by then.”
