'The goal is to arrive competely fresh' – change of plans for Remco Evenepoel as he eyes Tour de France success

After analysing his early season, Remco Evenepoel's Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe team have decided to alter his run-in to the Tour de France. He will now miss the Tour Auvergne Rhone-Alpes (formerly known as the Critérium du Dauphiné) in early June – a race that is traditionally seen as a key warm-up for the Tour.

Instead, the Belgian rider will spend the month undertaking recons for July as well as focused training and recovery.

“Contrary to the original plan, he will skip the Tour Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes,” the team said in a statement. “Instead, in the month of June, he will focus on a balanced mix of recovery, scouting the Tour course, and specific training. Prior to that, he will complete an altitude training camp in May.”

“The goal is to get him completely fresh at the start in Barcelona,” chief of sports Zak Dempster said. “After an analysis of his 25 race days, we see more benefit in a balanced alternative program than in adding extra race load.”

Evenepoel has enjoyed a solid though not spectacular season so far. A flying start included a flurry of wins at the Trofeo Mallorca and then the Volta Communitat Valenciana, where he won two stages and the overall.

At the Volta Catalunya in March his performance was tempered by a crash, although he held on to finish a creditable fifth overall behind winner Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike).

He went on to score his biggest win of the year so far at the Amstel Gold Race, but a week later at Liège-Bastogne-Liège he was forced to give up the top two podium spots to Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) and Paul Seixas (Decathlon CMA CGM).

Following the recent announcement that French teen sensation Seixas is now riding the Tour de France, it is now apparent that these are two riders he will meet in July – as well as Vingegaard. Whatever extra freshness he can squeeze from his altered programme is going to come in handy against such rivals.

The pre-Tour programme for Evenepoel's Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe teammate Florian Lipowitz has also been finalised. Having turned out an impressive performance at last week's Tour de Romandie, where he pushed eventual winner Pogačar all the way, the German will undertake an altitude training camp later this month. From there he'll head to his final race before the Tour, the Tour of Slovenia. That will be followed by a short training block, and then the big race.