Remco Evenepoel is thinking of adding the Tour de Romandie and the National Time Trial Championships to his build-up for the Tour de France, Belgian media report.
After suffering multiple fractures in a major training accident over the winner, Evenepoel is currently on the comeback trail, and he is now at altitude in Sierra Nevada, Spain with the Soudal-QuickStep Giro d'Italia squad. His first race this season is Brabantse Pijl on April 18 and he is then set to go on to do all the Ardennes Classics.
However, Het Laatste Nieuws claims that Evenepoel is then likely to make his debut in the Tour de Romandie (April 29 - May 4) and could also add the Belgian TT Nationals, due to be held in Brasschaat on June 27, just before the Tour de France.
While Evenepoel has never ridden the Amstel Gold, he is a very familiar figure in Liège-Bastogne-Liège, winning it in both 2022 and 2023. However, he has only raced Romandie once before, back in 2019, when he finished 76th,
After his possible participation in Romandie, Evenepoel would then likely return to a second altitude training camp, before heading, as has always been the plan for 2025, to the Criterium du Dauphiné. Assuming there are no changes to their race programs, the Dauphiné would be the first time he and the two riders ahead of him in last year's Tour de France - runner-up Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) and outright winner Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) - cross swords this season.
The publication of the 2025 Belgian National Time Trial routes this Friday for both the elite men and women is due on April 11 and will presumably have an effect on Evenepoel's decision to race it or not, although a definitive confirmation is not needed until late May.
If he does take part, the reigning World Time Trial Champion would presumably be using the Belgian Nationals in part as a reference for the 20925 Tour de France's sole individual TT, set to take place in Cáen, Normandy, on stage 5 over 33 kilometres.
The Belgian won the equivalent time trial stage in the 2024 Tour de France, a 25.7-kilometre test on stage 7 from Nuits-San-George to Gevrey-Chambertin and he has already won the National TT title, too, back in 2022.
