Remco Evenepoel already has a date to wear the world champion rainbow jersey for the first time in competition which he won at the Wollongong Road Cycling World Championships.
The Quick-Step team confirmed late on Monday that Evenepoel will run for the first time with the ‘arcobaleno’ jersey on October 4 at Binche-Chimay-Bincheone of the last Belgian classics of the season.
Since the Quick-Step they have not given more details about whether Evenepoel will face more races in the final stretch of the season although his presence in the Giro de Lombardía (October 8) is ruled out, a race of bad memories for the Belgian after the serious fall he suffered in the 2020 edition, since that weekend Evenepoel could marry his girlfriend Oumi Rayane .
It is not planned that he will go to the Tour in 2023
While it was revealed that Evenepoel would debut the rainbow jersey at Binche-Chimay-Binche, the newspaper L’Équipe brought to the fore one of the unknowns left by Evenepoel’s world title: if the Bega cyclist will wear the rainbow jersey in the next Tour de France, in what would be his debut in the French round.
However, everything seems to indicate that Evenepoel will not play the Tour in 2023 and that his debut is expected for the 2024 season. A decision that thus justifies Patrick Lefevere, Quick-Step manager: “We have made this decision a long time ago and, at the moment, we do not want to change our planning around Remco, although everything goes faster than expected”, he assured L’Équipe.
Lefevere also argues that going with the rainbow to the Tour would put a lot of pressure on Evenepoel. “It is the press that presents him as the new Eddy Merckx, not us, and we want to protect him. He imagines that he goes to the Tour with the rainbow, that everyone looks at him and fails. Everyone will be ready to go for him like when he left in the Giro last year”
