Remco Evenepoel is the favorite in the time trial. The Belgian is the favorite in the road race. With two gold medals to his name in Paris, he has once again proved himself on the big stage.
The 24-year-old is seizing the moment after finishing third in the Tour de France in the shadow of Tadej Pogacar and Jonas Vingegaard. The Slovenian and the Dane, who would have at least challenged him in the battle against the clock, were not present at the Olympic Games. So the show belongs to the Belgian: he gets off his bike shortly after the finish line, spreads his arms out and makes the perfect photo subject with the Eiffel Tower in the background.
"What a place to win this. I'm so proud to be the first to do the double," says the double Olympic champion. "I just pushed, pushed, pushed all the way to the finish line." The Belgian child prodigy thus adds to his world championship titles from the 2022 road race and 2023 time trial in the space of a week. World champion and Olympic champion in the same discipline is a rarity, at least in cycling.
Sven Vanthourenhout, the coach of the Belgian cycling team, is moved to tears. "You don't dare dream about it or even talk about it. But secretly we know that it is possible with Remco's qualities. It's phenomenal."
Evenepoel also had the potential to achieve great things in another sport. As a footballer, he defended for Belgium's youth teams. It wasn't until 2017 that he switched to cycling. Not out of the blue, as his father was already a professional cyclist. And just one year later, Evenepoel became junior world champion on the road and in the time trial - he achieved the double in Innsbruck. Only a terrible crash at the 2020 Tour of Lombardy put Evenepoel's ascent to Olympus in doubt for a few months.
