'If I were a basketball player, my career would have been over' - Remco Evenepoel on recovery from complex shoulder injury as comeback race nears

As the final hours tick off towards his first race of the 2025 season at De Brabantse Pijl, Remco Evenepoel has revealed the full extent of his injuries after his terrible December training crash, saying that if he had been a ball sports professional, his career would now be over.

The Soudal-QuickStep rider was badly injured when he collided with a post office vehicle door during one of his first training rides of the winter. He fractured his right shoulder blade, ribs and right hand. He has not raced since finishing second in Il Lombardia last autumn, seven months ago.

Evenepoel said that although his shoulder continues to give him pain and that he had even thought of ending his career, he was feeling ready to race after more thn two months of training. 

He even expressed confidence that he would try and beat Tadej Pogačar in the upcoming Ardennes Classics. Their first 2025 encounter is set for Sunday at Amstel Gold.

"After a few weeks, we discovered a nerve injury and this one has not healed yet, so there's a part of my shoulder muscle that is not working at all for the moment," Evenepoel said. 

"Luckily, that muscle is not the most important one for cyclists. If I had been a tennis player or a basketball or volleyball player, my career would have been over.

"My hand is 100% again, the ribs and scapula and lungs as well, it's just the ligaments and muscles that still a bit sensitive, and we need to use a lot of tape to stabilise the shoulder, specially with the cobbled sections.

"It's not optimal but my legs are turning, and that's the most important."

Asked if he thought he had really thought of stopping completely, as he had posted recently on Instagram, Evenepoel answered simply "Of course.

"The injuries were quite severe, in my shoulder all the ligaments were destroyed, the surgery was heavy [major] as well and then there was the extra nerve problem which completely malfunctioned my shoulder.

"It was pretty hard to accept, a difficult period. It's the second time [I was injured] in six months" - after his Itzulia Basque Country crash in April 2024  - "and always the same shoulder."

The questions inevitably began to gather in his mind, he said, something he was keen to share with the public, as a way of ensuring they kept in mind in his first races back after such a tough time.

"At a certain point you start to doubt, will my shoulder be healthy again, will it be functional again so yeah, the things I wrote in the Instagram post were not lies, it's one of the first posts I wrote myself in the last few years, that's how personal it was."

"I think it's not bad to sometimes share about how difficult a period has been and not always put a mask on, but just always show it to people so everybody knows what to expect for the next few weeks. But I'm really happy again to race and to train."

"My whole family and wife have seen me training. First it was going downwards and since I could train again, it was going upwards. So now it's hopefully only 'up' and only positive feelings."

Regarding Pogačar and his chances of beating him, Evenepoel said that it was inspiring to watch the Slovenian race, but he also had to keep in mind he was a competitor too. 

He is convinced that it was possible to defeat Pogačar. 

"If I didn't think it could happen, then I wouldn't be at the start line," he said.

"I need to try to beat him, which is very difficult, but that's what I'm paid to do by the team.

"So when I see how he races, I'm trying to learn something, I'm not going to say I analyse it because I'm not that smart, but I observe his typical strategies.

"Of course you have to be focused on yourself, and try to be the best version of yourself and that's the only way I can try to beat him and them for the Tour."

Evenepoel is also thinking hard about where his setbacks have left him and how far behind his rivals he is after such a late start to the 2025 season.  

"It's always difficult to calculate, the way you're asking me," Evenepoel said when asked if he had simple lost six weeks of racing and training.  

"I was able to ride a bike outside on February 1, before that I jumped on the rollers a bit, though that's different to riding outside. Then for the first month it was difficult to do proper exercises. But once I went to Spain with my wife, there I started doing more intensity training.

"But that was not easy at all because I only had a month and a few days training in my legs. So we had to implement all the intensity training in the Sierra [Nevada altitude] training camp in the last two weeks.

"I've taken some quite big steps in the last weeks, so I think racing is not coming too soon for me now. I think I'm ready to race."

As a double winner of Liège-Bastogne-Liège, expectations are logically high for next week, but Evenepoel preached caution and said he was looking more to the second half of the season for his best results.

"I've tried to do a lot of endurance rides and some intensity training in the last weeks, but for sure I'm behind with my top shape, but I'm still in good shape. Will it be enough to beat Pogacar or Pidcock who are in the shapes of their lives? This, I don't know."

"We will see after Sunday and next week. I'm just happy I can race again finally. I need to use the upcoming races to take steps forward towards the biggest goals and of course that's the Tour de France and the World Championships at the end of the year."