He may have the shock addition to Monument’s startlist, but Remco Evenepoel’s third place on debut at the Tour of Flanders did not come as a surprise to his Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe’s team. Their Chief of Sports, Zak Dempster said: “We wouldn't have done it if we didn't have the ambition to be there in the fight.”
Dempster was speaking to Rouleur at the finish of a particularly attritional edition of De Ronde, in which Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) rode away to another title. It was another Pogi kind of day, but 1:11 back in third place, Evenepoel achieved the best result by a debutant since Mads Pedersen finished second in 2018.
Such is the way that we have become accustomed to Pogačar’s exploits, which have made it easy to normalise general classification riders competing for victories in the Classics. 10 years ago, the only Monuments considered consistently winnable for the Grand Tour contenders would have been Il Lombardia and – at a push – Liège-Bastogne-Liège. But never the cobbled Classics. How things have changed.
“One thing is for sure that De Ronde is going to be a pretty regular part of his programme after this, which is exciting for us, for him and for the whole of the cycling world. I'm sure he's going to come back and go not only one better, but two better, hopefully,” said Dempster outside the Red Bull team bus in Oudenaarde.
Pogačar dominated another edition of the Tour of Flanders (Image: Getty)
And it’s easy to see why one of Evenepoel’s bosses is convinced he’ll be back at Belgium’s biggest race. Evenepoel, and the cohesive Red Bull squad, were in the thick of the action all day. It was only on the penultimate Oude Kwaremont where he could not quite hold onto the move by Pogačar, whose seated acceleration could only be followed by Mathieu van der Poel. Although the two more experienced cobbled Classics champions – and now joint De Ronde record holders – eked out more space over the subsequent hellingen, there were moments when the solo Evenepoel had the upper hand on the flat roads between the cobbled bergs. He reduced the gap down to single digits of seconds on a few occasions but eventually paid for the effort.
It’s hard to be disappointed with a Monument podium, something Evenepoel acknowledged at the finish: “I am happy. I think it's a result that we were hoping for and dreaming of. So I think we can only be happy with what we did as a team.”
The Red Bull team was impressive today. Evenepoel’s result comes on the back of the squad having improved significantly since last year when they struggled to perform in the Spring races. The Classics were a key focus of Dempster and his colleagues for 2026.
“I joined the team on October 1,” said Dempster. “One of the first things I did was talk to everyone in the sports department and all the riders and ask them for their feedback. The main feedback from the Classics last year was that it wasn't really a strong team performance. It was in their words like ‘a bunch of guys in the same jersey riding around in the same race, but not as a team’.
“They had a good, clear, and honest conversation, and decided how they wanted to be as a team. And then they had the courage to follow it through and actually make it happen. We can be really proud of how they've done that.”
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Dempster acknowledged that having their star rider lining up at the Flanders would only make them stronger – and so it proved: “You add Remco into the mix, and it's an even better squad.”
Praise for Evenepoel’s debut not only came from within his team. The day’s winner, Pogačar said: “It was a really brilliant race from him today. He did super good and for the first time coming to the Classics, I think he showed that he can win this race, and also some others.”
Van der Poel, who occupied one step higher on the podium, was less effusive with his praise, but nevertheless was complimentary: "I think everybody knows what a talent he is, so I think he just performed like I expected."
It takes one to know one, right?
Could that previously untapped ability on the cobbles hint at different Monument debut in the near future at Paris-Roubaix?
“I wouldn't rule it out,” Dempster said with a smile. Seeing the antics Red Bull played this week with Evenepoel's De Ronde participation, Dempster is right, you definitely can’t rule anything out.
