Remco Evenepoel's journey from football prodigy to cycling World Champion

How a young footballer went on to become one of the best riders in the world

Remco Evenepoel
(Image credit: Getty Images)

This article appeared in the September 2022 issue of Cycling Weekly

It is summer in Lanzarote and Remco Evenepoel, the 15-year-old footballer and captain of his beloved RSC Anderlecht and Belgian U16 national team, is bored. “Remco came up to me and asked if I wanted to join him on a bike ride,” remembers his team-mate Sebastiaan Bornauw, who by coincidence was at the same hotel with his own family.

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Chris Marshall-Bell

A freelance sports journalist and podcaster, you'll mostly find Chris's byline attached to news scoops, profile interviews and feature writing across a variety of different publications. He has been writing regularly for Cycling Weekly since 2013.


Previously a ski, hiking and cycling guide in a number of places, but mostly in the Canadian Rockies and Spanish Pyrenees, he almost certainly holds the record for the most number of interviews conducted from snowy mountains.


He lives in Valencia, Spain.