Remco Evenepoel made history in Slovenia on Sunday when he romped to victory in the European Championships road race by the narrowest of margins over breakaway partner Giulio Ciccone (Italy). In doing so he became the first rider ever to have won all the major road and time trial titles. No other rider has previously won the Euros, Worlds, Olympics and National titles in both disciplines.
It is a journey for the Belgian that has taken place over five seasons – his first elite title, the Belgian national time trial, came in June 2022, although it was only a few months later that he won his first elite World Championships road race.
At first, though, it was impossible for either Evenepoel or Ciccone – or anyone looking on, for that matter – to call his European title win, so evenly matched were the two as they sprinted across the line. It was only a close-up take on the photo finish that ultimately revealed the Belgian had crossed the line around a millimetre ahead of Ciccone, who had attacked in the final run-in and looked for all the world as though he would hold his rival off.
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It had been an eventful race, with Evenpoel crashing on a corner as he tried to mount an initial attack. He was quickly up and running and attacked again in short order, this time taking Ciccone with him. Once the gap had been established, Evenpoel expressed frustration at times at Ciccone’s unwillingness to share turns – a strategy, the Italian said, based on having his teammate (and eventual bronze medal-winner) Christian Scaroni chasing behind.
“I feel really disappointed, but I want to say congrats to Remco,” said Ciccone post-race. “He’s a super strong rider. I was lucky with the situation in the race with Scaroni behind us, so I played on the situation to stay on the wheel. I understand that for [Evenepoel] it wasn’t a nice situation, but this is racing. But another time, congrats to him.”
For his part, Evenepoel felt he had rectified what he saw as him disappointing the whole country with his 12th place in the previous week’s World Championships road race.
“I’m super happy, super proud of this. So I think [the Worlds] was playing more in my head than I’ve been showing. So it’s a big relief to be back on a good level today and to complete my Championship jerseys… it feels amazing.”
This final chapter in Evenepoel’s title quest comes at the end of a season replete with victories at the highest level for the 26-year-old Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe rider. Only 10 days previously he had won his fourth World Championships time trial title, but there were also wins in the Classics and stages in the Tour de France.
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