The spring slayer, Netherlands’ Mathieu van der Poel and Evenepoel’s Belgian teammate, Wout van Aert, dominated the pre-race chatter. Denmark’s Mads Pedersen, too, was talked about, but Evenepoel, a week on from his time trialling masterclass, was not the subject of intense hype. More fool the pundits, for when Evenepoel, a winner of world titles, Olympic medals, Grand Tours and dozens of more races before he’s turned 25 has his sights set on glory, he rarely fails to deliver. Paris 2024 has been no different.
With the remnants of the day’s breakaway, a conglomerate of rarely-known athletes from Uganda, Thailand and Rwanda among them, fracturing, and Ben Healy and Alexey Lutsenko persisting out front with 80km remaining, Evenepoel knew it was time to do what he does best: light the fuse, up the cadence, and whittle his rivals into submission. In just 17km of racing, he tried once, twice, three times, and for good measure had a fourth dig. Much to his frustration, none of his attacks stuck, no groups splintered in his favour, and he remonstrated with an exasperated look and gesticulated with a throw into the air. There’s no Remco victory without the ranting and raving.
Van der Poel and Van Aert then went, pounding the cobbled hill of Montmartre like it’s never been ridden before, and for a prolonged moment Evenepoel was out of the picture, forgotten, cast aside, not set to be a finishing player in this grandest of settings. You don’t beat Evenepoel that easily, though.
As the cyclocross-cum-road superstar duo strangely sat up, Evenepoel went on the attack again, settling into a time trialling position to bridge the gap to the chase group up ahead. In the blink of an eye, he was back, and the moment to distance him was gone forever. A stinging, viscous in-the-saddle attack single-handedly saw him bring lone leader Healy back into the pack, the Irishman’s 30 second lead turned to smithereens in an instant; that’s quite often the net result of an Evenepoel attack. It wasn’t long before Evenepoel’s companions in the group were suffering, too, as one by one they didn’t just slip but were slingshot from his back wheel. Valentin Madouas, the silver medallist come the end, put up the biggest resistance, sitting in the Belgian’s wheel longer than anyone else much to Evenepoel’s irritation, but ultimately he too wouldn’t stay the course, an Evenepoel acceleration – another one, yep – with 15km remaining enough for him to finally go solo.
And there he was, comfortable, satisfied, exactly where he wanted to be: alone, just him and the road up ahead, just a time trial effort – his bread and butter – to secure yet another glorious win. Angst, then, when with 3.8km remaining, a back wheel puncture derailed him. He flung his bike to the ground, and furiously waved and shouted at his team car to speed up. It did, he remounted his spare bike hurriedly, but in panic. With no race radios present, he screamed at the TV camera and pointed to where a headset unit would ordinarily be. “Time? How much time?” he appeared to bark. He had over a minute in the bag, he was still cruising, but this was peak Evenepoel: where there’s glory, there’s drama, too.
Time gap subsequently relayed to him, put at ease that a pesky thorn or nail wasn’t going to prevent him from securing his second gold, he enjoyed the final kilometre alongside the River Seine and towards the Eiffel Tower, that most iconic of Paris and French landmarks. As he passed under it, the iron structure that donated some of its lionised metal to the two gold medals Evenepoel now owns, he got off his bike, positioned it on the finish line, and stood back with his arms outstretched and slammed an imaginary phone down to the ground. Hang it in the Louvre, they cried; which one? The post-puncture scream? The multiple solo time trial efforts? The repeated attacks? Or the finish line celebration? Another Remco Evenepoel masterpiece, another catalogue of incidents, moments and jaw-dropping explosivity.
He is a rider with extraordinary capabilities, and these past five weeks have been his best yet: best of the rest behind the two superhumans at the Tour, and now two Olympic gold medals. He is a rider who overcomes adversity and setbacks time after time – he gets knocked down, sometimes severely like at Il Lombardia and Itzulia Basque Country, but he always responds with greater power and dexterity than before. He’s a man with an abundance of personality and attitude: he gets angry, furious, livid, and simultaneously elated, thrilled and exhilarated. He’s always stimulated, and he always stimulates the crowd: he gets you up off your chair, and gets you screaming alongside him. He’s a rider we all want to be: aggressive, fun, and entertaining even when success is predicted. “It’s history, no?” he proclaimed at the end. Damn right it is.
