The unstoppable Remco Evenepoel: football player turned Olympic hero

If you believe his teammates and coaches, Remco Evenepoel could have become the next N’Golo Kanté. But instead of tirelessly chasing opponents on the football pitch, the Belgian hung up his boots and focused on cycling. This was a golden decision, as he became the first cyclist to win both the time trial and the road race at the ongoing Paris Olympics.
 
The 24-year-old star joined the youth academy of Belgian football powerhouse Anderlecht at the age of five and moved to Dutch top club PSV Eindhoven at eleven, only to return to Anderlecht a few seasons later. He also represented Belgium at youth level, playing four matches for the U15 and five for the U16 team.
 
With a remarkable work rate and stamina, Evenepoel mainly played as a left-back or defensive midfielder. Although he was clearly talented, coaches and teammates remember most how Evenepoel seemingly never got tired.
 
At this point, it’s fitting to hand over the word to Stéphane Sassin, who coached Evenepoel at Anderlecht. He rewound the clock to October 2016, when the future cyclist was 16. “We had played a big game on Saturday, and we had another big game on Tuesday. I told Remco to do nothing on Sunday because I knew he liked running or riding 60-70 km with his father.
 
That Sunday, I went to run the Brussels half marathon. Suddenly, a group of fast runners passed me, and one guy in an Anderlecht training kit asked how I was doing. It was Remco. He was running like crazy again, just a day after the game,” Sassin recalled in Cycling Weekly magazine.
 
Of the 6,444 people who finished the half marathon, Evenepoel was 13th.
 
According to Stassin, coaches constantly told Evenepoel to quit football and focus on a sport better suited to his physical abilities. Although this advice was given humorously, it became a reality.
 
Footballer Evenepoel was developing less well than others. First, he was not called to the national team, and then Anderlecht gave him the boot. The latter decision upset the young man, as he said he was not explained.
 
Despite the setbacks, Evenepoel did not give up. He joined K.V. Mechelen, but the problem was that the future Olympic champion had lost his love for football.
 
He hung up his boots.

Evenepoel is an extraordinary talent

Like many Belgian families, cycling was also highly regarded in the Evenepoel household. Remco’s father, Patrick, is a former cyclist who participated in one grand tour during his career: he finished 113th in the 1993 Vuelta a España. His only notable professional victory came the same season when he triumphed in the one-day race GP Wallonie, beating, among others, one of the best sprinters in history, German Erik Zabel.
 
In the spring of 2017, Patrick’s close friend Fred Vandervennet received a call. On the other end was former footballer Remco, asking for help from Belgium’s three-time marathon champion. “He said he wanted to do some cycling,” Vandervennet recalled.
 
Evenepoel’s parents had yet to learn about their son’s wish. He trained with Vandervennet for a few weeks using his father’s old bike when his parents eventually realized something was wrong. They sat him down and asked what was up. “Call Fred. He knows everything,” was the reply.
 
After talking with Vandervennet, Patrick, who had become a plasterer after his career, and his mother, Agna, a hairdresser, were not angry with their son. On the contrary, Remco’s father was very happy because his son wanted to become a professional cyclist.
 
Although the first months were challenging – Evenepoel was afraid to ride in the peloton, his body position on the bike was terrible, he was a very poor descender, and he kept crashing – the 17-year-old was a quick learner and soon showed what he was capable of.
 
His first bike victory came in his tenth race. A little later, he started in Spain’s biggest and most prestigious youth tour, in the Basque Country, where he won one stage and finished second overall.
 
A year later, Evenepoel proved he was a talent rarely seen in cycling. At the European Junior Championships, he won the time trial and the road race, beating the nearest competitor in the latter by nine minutes and 44 seconds.
 
Thus, it was no surprise that Evenepoel decided to skip the U23 category and moved directly to the professional level in 2019. The first major victories came just a year later.
 
Today, Evenepoel has risen to become one of the best cyclists in the world. In addition to medals from various championships, he has claimed multiple victories in major one-day races and won one grand tour: fatefully, the same Vuelta familiar to his father.
 
What he achieved at the Paris Olympics is even more remarkable, just days after the grueling Tour de France. While the first two finishers of the world’s most prestigious race, Tadej Pogačar, and Jonas Vingegaard, skipped the Olympics, Tour’s third man Evenepoel was there and won two golds.
 
But who was or wasn’t in Paris wasn’t Evenepoel’s concern. Besides, on his 17th birthday, he made a social media post with a meaningful meme that read: “Be the best; f**k the rest.”