Remco Evenepoel is back and on his way to greatness once again after Liege-Bastogne-Liege heroics

Remco Evenepoel has been a polarising figure since even before he joined the professional ranks. Beyond Belgium, and the most cosmopolitan close followers of junior cycling, the first time many of us watched him race was at the 2019 Junior World Championships in Innsbruck. He won the time trial by more than a minute from Australian Luke Plapp.

In the road race, despite being caught up in a crash that cost him plenty of places and a stack of time, Evenepoel was able to push his way through the field, before riding to a solo victory by a margin of 85 seconds over the next best rider. Ad/> And pushed is more than merely a figurative word in that sentence. As sensational as his performance was, you might remember seeing him physically manhandle his way past fellow competitors on a climb.

There was the sense, in some quarters, that he was a bit too big for his boots, that he had bought into the hype around him and the headlines calling him 'the next Eddy Merckx'. He was far from the first Belgian rider to have had the label imposed upon them, but most have tended to bat it away. 'Remco' as he almost immediately became known, seemed to embrace it.