In a conversation with Het Laatste Nieuws, the World Time Trial champion discusses his plans for 2024. “In 2024, everything will revolve around the Tour. Also, my spring classic, Liège-Bastogne-Liège, certainly fits in there. And maybe I’ll add another monument.”
Start of the season will be later
In 2024, Evenepoel will, in any case, start the season later than last year. In 2023, he began the season at the Tour de San Juan in Argentina at the end of January. “That’s not ideal if you’re working towards the Tour. Now I will keep racing at a high level for a long time, until mid-October.”
Time for recovery
“I need to be able to recover from that as well. I’ll take about three or four weeks to do that. I’ll hardly touch my bike during that time. The team hasn’t decided yet, but I’ll probably resume training around February 15 to 20.”
“The UAE Tour and Paris-Nice could be a good combined first block in that regard. UAE Tour as a warm-up, Paris-Nice for the serious business. Then I will include the classics after a period of altitude training. Certainly Liège-Bastogne-Liège. I also want to add La Flèche Wallonne and the Amstel Gold Race to my list of achievements, but I’m not sure if that will be before next year. We’ll see.”
Belgium races are ruled out
“I said right after the World Championships, ‘I’m not ready yet.’ Especially because Flanders is a different race from Glasgow. Longer climbs, longer efforts. Betting everything for three or four minutes after 270 kilometers instead of twenty seconds: it’s a big difference. One day it will happen, but not yet.”