Remco Evenepoel has been one of the great absences this week in races such as Paris-Nice and Tirreno-Adriatico, where other great figures of the peloton have competed such as Tadej Pogacar, Jonas Vingegaard or Primoz Roglic. However, despite not competing this week, Evenepoel continues to perform at a very high rate at the start of the season, also in training.
Evenepoel has been concentrating on altitude in Tenerife since March 3 and this Monday he published on Strava one of those activities that demonstrate the great level of the current world champion.
The Belgian cyclist shared a start in which it rolled for 165.27 kilometers in a time of 5:25:18 on a route with 4,335 meters of positive elevation gain.
An outing in which Evenepoel smashed the Teide ascent recorda true classic for great figures in the peloton, after climbing from Chio and completing the 24.5 kilometers of ascent with a drop of 1,347 meters and an average slope of 5.5% in a time of 56:25 at an average of 26.1 km/h.
With this record, Evenepoel becomes the fourth cyclist to have dropped below an hour in the climb to Teide ahead of Jonas Hjorth (58:21), Louis Vervaeke (59:08) and Chris Froome (59:20).
The Volta a Catalunya, his next big challenge
Hours after his great feat on Mount Teide, the Soudal Quick-Step team confirmed the return to competition of Remco Evenepoel starting next Monday in the Volta a Catalunyaa race in which Evenepoel will make his debut in the Catalan round.
To fight for everything in the Volta a Catalunya, Evenepoel will be supported by a powerful team that will help him in the mountains and who form Mattia Cattaneo, Jan Hirt, Fausto Masnada, Ilan Van Wilder and Louis Vervaeke together with the Belgian Pieter Serry.
The Volta a Catalunya will be a demanding test for an Evenepoel who will face rivals such as Primoz Roglic, Richard Carapaz, João Almeida, Adam Yates, Geraint Thomas or Mikel Landa before facing another of his great challenges for this 2023: looking for his second great tour in the next Giro d’Italia (May 6-28). A Giro in which Evenepoel could be scary if he maintains the form that he has already shown after smashing the record for ascent on Mount Teide.