It was windy stop The Tumble in south Wales on Saturday afternoon. Windy enough to prevent any long-range attacks from sticking, and to blow any unsecured Geraint Thomas face masks away, but not enough to disturb the nascent moustache on Remco Evenepoel's top lip, despite the breeze hitting him full in the face as he sprinted to victory.
The moustache might be barely there on the Soudal Quick-Step rider's face, but the confidence is rowing once again for the Belgian, after a season of ups and downs, a familiar story by now. The win on stage five of the Tour of Britain Men was just the Olympic champion's second road race win of 2025, after Brabantse Pijl, although there have been four time trial triumphs, including at the Tour de France.
"It's been quite a search for that [his second road race win], so in the end I'm happy to take a stage win here," the 25-year-old explained post-stage. "Last year I didn't manage to win a stage so it feels good to be here with some better legs and some better results as well. I'm very happy with the stage win in the queen stage actually. I'm very satisfied with the feeling."
Evenepoel's year started slowly, after he was hit by the driver of a Belgian post van in December, not returning to racing until Brabantse Pijl, which he duly won. Time trial wins at the Tour de Romandie and Critérium du Dauphiné and top fives on general classification followed, before he won stage five of the Tour de France in Caen. However, the Belgian then left that race early, on stage 14, before it was announced that he would be leaving his Soudal Quick-Step contract early for Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe next year. The Tour of Britain is his first race back since that news broke, and one of his last in his current team's jersey.
The Tour of Britain fits in as Evenpoel's build-up for the World Championships and Il Lombardia, as well as a race to win in and of itself.
"I've done quite some work for the team already, for our sprinter, and also I've ridden a bit more after the stages sometimes, so I'm not here just for the racing, I'm here to improve myself, and to test myself," he said. "For the moment, it's all going well, and I feel like I'm on the right track, so that's very positive."
It is notable that Evenepoel is still trying for his current employers, despite the drawn out saga over his future. Earlier this week, he told Cycling Weekly that it's a "relief that it's out".
This win, narrow as it was, is a boost for the former world champion.
"It was difficult, the headwind was pretty strong after the last 3km, in the forest we didn't really feel the wind, but once we got over the cattle grid it was pretty windy," he said of stage five. "That made it a bit tactical in the end, we tried on the first time up the climb to go really hard from the bottom, but we felt with 3km to go that the wind was too strong to really tear things apart.
"It was only like seven to eight minutes, and everyone can push that really high power, so it was difficult to make a big difference. I quickly realised that maybe the sprint would be the best option for today, and in the end it was the right way today."
His sprint at the top of the climb might not have been against Tadej Pogačar, but it was still hard-fought, and Tom Gloag (Visma-Lease a Bike) and Oscar Onley (Picnic PostNL) were not easy opponents.
"That [his sprint] feels really good, especially with the headwind. I went from far away, from 200m, I was a bit worried that the guys would come over me, but I my sprint was strong enough to keep it to the line," Evenepoel said. "With winning the sprint today, maybe it's a bit of a shame of my mechanical yesterday because it would have been a bit different, especially in terms of GC, but in the end that's cycling, and we have to look to tomorrow and enjoy this one."
Evenepoel had a gear-issue on stage four, preventing him from taking advantage of a promising situation, which Romain Grégoire (Groupama-FDJ) won. However, after the penultimate day, Evenepoel is just two seconds off the Frenchman, and it will all come down to Cardiff on Sunday. It would be his first overall victory since the Volta ao Algarve at the beginning of 2024, so the Tour of Britain is not meaningless.
"We have to try, it's two seconds," Evenepoel said. "There's a GC win up for grabs. It's going to be really difficult, there's only one really big opportunity for that in the final. It's going to rain a lot, so it might be very tricky tomorrow. I'm not going to risk my life for it but I'm going to go for it."
The moustache will get wet on stage six, but expect Soudal Quick-Step's Olympic champion to go all in for the win; he wants to keep up the impression that he is back. Cycling is better for it.
