Started with Football, Switched to Cycling at 17: Evenepoel Experienced a Year of Glory and Hell

BRUSSELS – Belgian cyclist Remco Evenepoel, who will celebrate his 25th birthday on January 25, has achieved a string of successes despite starting his career later than most. These include two gold medals at the World Championships and the Olympics, as well as a victory at the Vuelta.

Evenepoel began his athletic journey in football but switched to cycling at the age of 17. Last year, he suffered a serious accident when he crashed into the open doors of a postal vehicle, resulting in several injuries.

The son of former professional cyclist Patrick Evenepoel, he even played for Belgium’s youth national football teams. However, at 17, he made the decision to switch to cycling. The following year, he dominated both the time trial and road race at the junior World and European Championships.

In the next year, he became the European time trial champion in the senior category and earned a silver medal at the World Championships. In August 2019, he made history by winning the WorldTour Clásica San Sebastián as the youngest cyclist ever to win a WorldTour race. However, in August 2020, he suffered a severe crash at the Giro di Lombardia, breaking his pelvis. He returned to the peloton after six months at the Giro, but did not finish his first Grand Tour.

In 2022, Evenepoel won the Vuelta, but in 2023, he had to abandon the Giro as the leader after testing positive for COVID-19. Last April, he was involved in another heavy crash at the Tour of Catalonia, breaking his collarbone and scapula, requiring surgery. Despite this, he went on to achieve third place overall at his debut Tour de France and became the first cyclist in history to win both the time trial and the road race at the Paris Olympics.

At the end of last year, Evenepoel suffered another injury. On December 3rd, during a training ride in Oetingen, he crashed into the open door of a postal vehicle, sustaining multiple injuries. He broke a rib, scapula, and hand, bruised his lungs, and dislocated his collarbone, tearing surrounding ligaments.

He underwent surgery on the same day as the accident. Despite this, he remains optimistic and has stated that he hopes to return to the peloton in April for the Brabantse Pijl classic. It was originally speculated that the Soudal-Quick Step star might make it to the Paris-Nice or Tirreno-Adriatico stage races in March.