REMCO EVENEPOEL could have lined up for Belgium at Euro 2024 but is instead preparing to win the Tour de France.
The 24-year-old has never taken part in cycling‘s grandest race before, yet is one of the favourites for this year’s competition.
He is set to brush shoulders alongside previous winners Tadej Pogacar and Jonas Vingegaard, but could have been playing with some of his former team-mates in Germany.
Evenepoel was a talented young player and spent time in the academies of Anderlecht and PSV Eindhoven before quitting to focus on cycling.
He also represented Belgium across different youth groups, captaining the Under-16 side.
Evenepoel impressed from an early age with his incredible fitness levels a particular stand out characteristic, but what shone most was his professionalism and mentality.
He played alongside Arsenal midfielder Albert Sambi Lokonga at Anderlecht, who believes Evenepoel’s fitness regime as a teenager may have served his cycling career well.
Lokonga told The Athletic: “He was one year below me but sometimes the 1999 and 2000 players trained together, and so he trained with me.
“It’s crazy what he’s done. I know that when he was young, when we had to run up and down, he was already one of the best so that maybe helped with the distances you ride when you are a cyclist.”
Evenepoel was registering stress test results comparable to that of a triathlete when he was in the U10s, with one former coach likening his “incredible endurance” to a moped.
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The 2022 Vuelta a Espana winner himself said his engine was a big factor in his football ability, saying: “My style of play was a bit similar to how I ride a bike.
“I had a big engine and tried to cover every blade of grass.”
Evenepoel was a prolific winner from early on in his cycling career, becoming road race world champion at the age of 22 before winning the world time trial a year later.
His professionalism has been exemplary and it is a trait the Belgian picked up as a teenager, earning him the role of captain with the national team.
Belgium U16s coach Bob Browaeys told The Athletic: “I spoke to him often in that role.
“And I was always puzzled. He was so professional at such a young age; just 15, talking about his preparations for games, for his careers. He was special. Uncommon.
“He was at the highest level, I never had a player with such a high-performance mindset. That was unbelievable.”
He even became a right-hand man to Anderlecht coach Stephane Stassin, and had a big influence over his other team-mates.
Stassin recalled in an interview with Cycling Weekly: “In the older age groups, you’re the right hand of the coach but that’s not always easy with the youth teams because they’re so young.
“Remco, however, was the exception: he was effectively the right hand of the coach and he talked to his team-mates. When I asked him to do something, sometimes he would say that he had already talked with his team-mates and arranged what was needed.”
Evenepoel began his football career as a midfielder but lacked tactical nous, so was moved to left-back shortly before he quit altogether.
He once played alongside Manchester City and Belgium star Jeremy Doku as well as RB Leipzig defender Lois Openda, but as his peers overtook him technically Evenepoel found himself out of favour, before giving up football for good.
He told The Lanterne Rouge cycling podcast: “I was captain of the national team, then they put me on the bench and I started to ask myself questions: ‘Is it worth continuing?’.
“Then, I wasn’t even on the bench anymore. I just wasn’t in the top 15 players. Then I really started to hate the sport.”
