Remco Evenepoel reflects on switch from football to cycling, eyes Tadej Pogacar and Jonas Vingegaard tussles

ByRob Hemingway

Published 26/04/2023 at 09:35 GMT

Life could have turned out very differently for Remco Evenepoel in a sporting context, with the Belgian spending much of his youth trying to make it in professional football. He spent time with Anderlecht and PSV Eindhoven, before a hip injury saw him fall out of love with the game. Evenepoel also said he feels ready to compete with Tadej Pogacar and Jonas Vingegaard.

Remco Evenepoel has reflected on his career-defining switch to cycling from football, and discussed his readiness to compete at Grand Tours against Tadej Pogacar and Jonas Vingegaard.

Evenepoel has broken out in some style over the last year, winning the Vuelta a Espana in 2022, as well as triumphing in the road race at the World Championships.

Those honours have made him a man to watch in the peloton, and he looks in form again this season after defending his Liege-Bastogne-Liege title, albeit without having his much-anticipated showdown with Pogacar, who succumbed to an early crash.

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But it all could have been so different.

"I started at the age of four to try to work and become a professional football player," Evenepoel told Eurosport's The Cycling Show.

"So really, really early, when I was very small. I started in Anderlecht, in my eyes the best team in Belgium.

"I did seven years there, and then I left to a club in Holland - PSV [Eindhoven] - and then in the end I came back to the same club that I left.

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"Things got a bit wrong, I also broke my left hip, I had to come back from the injury and I started to ride a bike a bit more because for my hip it was the best movement, not too much contact with the floor so it was good rehabilitation.

"And then I wasn't put in the starting XI anymore, on the bench, got left at home sometimes.

"Out of nowhere I just lost my passion and the love for football and I wanted to stop completely with that and try something different.

"In the end I chose for cycling, and I'm happy that I did."

Remco Evenepoel.

Image credit: Getty Images

Many cycling fans are impatient to see a Grand Tour showdown between Pogacar, Vingegaard and Evenepoel, with British fans also hoping Tom Pidcock can get into that mix long-term.

And Evenepoel confirmed those battles are on his to-do list.

"Those guys [Pogacar and Vingegaard] are really crazy good," the 23-year-old said.

"But I think this year as a Vuelta winner and a world champion I can take a lot of confidence.

"I have to believe in myself, in my capacities. I think that I'm coming to a level where I will probably be able to compete with them.

"That's also where I want to go and where my ambitions are, to try to win races over them.

"It would be a big dream and a big motivation for me to try and step up again and try to fight against them for race victories."

Evenepoel suffered a serious accident at Il Lombardia in 2020, something that looked as if it might derail the young star's progress in cycling.

But he says it actually helped him psychologically to compartmentalise the demands of big races.

"I'm always in the middle of everything - all the spotlight is on me - but I don't win the races without my team-mates," the Belgian said.

"For example the Vuelta (in 2022), I'm in the red jersey, all the attention goes to me. But I only ride some days, one kilometre in the wind - maybe not even that.

"I learned [at that race] that I can be really relaxed and focused at the same time - I was not like that before my crash. I was focused but it all had to go for the bike, bike, bike and nothing else could enter the way.

"Now it's completely different, we manage perfectly the relaxed moments and the stress moments.

"I really learned how you go through that month to perform at the highest level every day."

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