Remco Evenepoel has taken one of the most sought after Strava KOM’s on Tenerife, the Chio to Teide segment on the island’s Mount Teide climb.
The reigning World Champion posted a record time on the segment of 56:25 to take the crown. Other notable professional racers to feature in the all-time top ten are Chris Froome, Dylan van Baarle and Pavel Sivakov.
Evenepoel bested the time of Jonas Hjorth, a rider who until the end of last year was riding with the Bahrain Victorious academy squad.
The Norwegian set a time of 58:21 in 2020 that the Belgian has now bettered by nearly two minutes.
Froome set a time of 59:20 in May 2019 (now ranked fourth best), a few months before his life-threatening crash at the Criterium du Dauphine, which Evenepoel has now smashed by nearly three minutes.
(Image credit: Strava)
The KOM came on a 165.27 kilometre training ride that the Belgian shared earlier today, featuring more than 4,000 metres of elevation gain in the Teide National Park. Evenepoel is currently on the island for an altitude training camp as he builds for goals later in the season.
After winning the UAE Tour in February, the Soudal Quick-Step rider is next set to race at the Volta a Catalunya which begins next week. It will be the first time Evenepoel will face off against Primož Roglič in 2023, before the duo look to fight it out for the Giro d’Italia title in May.
Tenerife and Mount Teide have long played host to a raft of WorldTour professionals, looking to cram in some high-intensity altitude training before competing at all three of the Grand Tours.
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(Image credit: Strava)
Sir Bradley Wiggins famously stayed at the Parador Hotel at the summit of Mount Teide in 2011.
Chris Froome and Team Sky also regularly stayed on the mountain in the past, including when Froome previously set a record time on the mountain.
Despite it not being the highest road in Europe, Teide is the longest continuous ascent as it’s possible to begin the climb from sea level. In just 35 kilometres, riders can rapidly climb from zero to 2,100 metres of elevation continuously, mainly due to the climb's lack of cambered hairpin bends.
All of this combined makes it the ideal destination for professional riders looking to accumulate as much climbing as possible into a training programme.
Evenepoel has used Teide before for altitude training, particularly in the winter period before he then went on to win the Vuelta a España, his first Grand Tour.
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After previously working in higher education, Tom joined Cycling Weekly in 2022 and hasn't looked back. He's been covering professional cycling ever since; reporting on the ground from some of the sport's biggest races and events, including the Tour de France, Paris-Roubaix and the World Championships. His earliest memory of a bike race is watching the Tour on holiday in the early 2000's in the south of France - he even made it on to the podium in Pau afterwards. His favourite place that cycling has taken him is Montréal in Canada.
