Following a short delay to have his wisdom teeth removed, Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-QuickStep) is back in training and ramping up for the 2025 road season.
The double Olympic champion is now at the Specialized headquarters in Morgan Hill, USA, which Soudal-QuickStep confirmed to Cyclingnews was for pre-season testing and time in the wind tunnel.
After the minor surgical procedure, Evenpoel has been actively posting to his TikTok account and Strava, where his last two recorded activities were a 62km ride in Belgium and a 9km run in California where the Specialized headquarters is.
"Learning to ride a few teeth lighter," read Evenepoel's ride caption as part of "Back at it: Part 2" on November 16.
It was just his second recorded ride since he took a well-deserved holiday following Il Lombardia, where he was second only to Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) and rounded off another very successful season in his young career.
In Evenpoel's sixth season at WorldTour level, he managed wins at both the Paris Olympics road race and time trial, before defending his World Championships ITT title. The Belgian also made his Tour de France debut where he took a stage win and third overall behind Pogačar and Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike).
Evenepoel, 24, has mooted the idea of riding the Giro d'Italia alongside the Tour de France in 2025, admitting that his podium finish in Nice made him want to "have the feeling of winning a Grand Tour again".
The Belgian discussed his 2025 plans speaking to the Belgian newspaper Het Nieuwsblad after winning the Flandrien of the Year award for the second time earlier this month.
"Last year, the Giro-Tour combination wasn't possible if you wanted to be in top form for the Olympics. Now we can consider it, but we will first wait and see what the course is like," Evenepoel said.
"[Winning a Grand Tour] will be the focus," he said. "Last season, I dominated the time trials. I also noticed that I am among the better climbers, but there are two even better. Tadej Pogačar and Jonas Vingegaard are my new reference points. Everyone knows that my remaining goals are to win the Giro and the Tour, so I want to invest fully in that."
Despite being one of the riders of a generation, Evenepoel has work to do if he is to close the gap to Pogačar. However, his rate of progression from junior super talent to Tour de France third-place finisher suggests that if anyone can step up to challenge the dominant Slovenian, it will be him.
