World champion Remco Evenepoel to kick off 2023 season in Argentina
The Belgian set to ride the Vuelta a San Juan, a race he has previously won, in January
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Remco Evenepoel is set to begin his 2023 season with the Vuelta a San Juan race in Argentina.
According to a report from Het Laatse Nieuws, the current world champion will begin his 2023 calendar with the race in Argentina in January.
Evenepoel has started his season at the Argentinian race on two other occasions, and took the overall victory at the 2020 edition ahead of Filippo Ganna. He is the last winner of the race after it was cut from the calendar in 2021 and 2022 due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Article continues belowAs well as Evenepoel, Egan Bernal is already confirmed to be starting his season in Argentina alongside Ineos Grenadiers teammate Ganna.
The full details of Evenepoel’s calendar next year are still unknown, with Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl keeping the plans firmly in house for now.
However speculation has continued to mount as to which Grand Tour the Belgian will target next year. The Giro d'Italia is supposedly a preferred destination, particularly due to the race featuring a substantial amount of time trialling kilometres, but neither Evenepoel or his team have confirmed concrete plans yet.
Although, according to Het Laatse Nieuws, Evenepoel riding the Giro d’Italia is as good as decided, with the UAE Tour and Tirreno Adriatico also being in his programme.
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At the recent Tour de France 2023 route presentation, Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl team boss Patrick Lefevere said that he “isn’t ruling anything out” for Evenepoel’s 2023 season.
Lefevere added that he believes a course featuring a large amount of climbing shouldn’t be a turn off for the Belgian world champion.
“Over the next few weeks we’ll take a closer look at everything and make a final decision. Remco has proven that he can also go uphill,” he said. “In the Giro, in addition to the three time trials, there are also mountain stages.”
“I don’t rule out anything for Evenepoel. A good Remco can do well on every kind of course,” Lefevere added.
If Evenepoel does indeed ride the Giro, then he will almost certainly come up against Geraint Thomas.
After the recent Tour route announcement, Thomas hinted that he would prefer to ride the Italian Grand Tour next year due to him having “unfinished business” with the race.
"It's a race I've always enjoyed, even if I've crashed out the last two times I've done it. It would be nice to go back and finish it," Thomas said.
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.