The Secret Pro: Why Evenepoel's Flanders debut won't worry Van der Poel and Pogačar

Remco Evenepoel starting the Tour of Flanders created a bit of a media storm this week, didn’t it? Everyone was first surprised and then super excited, talking up a battle between him, Tadej Pogačar and Mathieu van der Poel. Well, everyone except those of us in the bunch. To be totally honest, within the peloton this is not something unbelievable or the biggest of news.

Why? Because the really big hitters – those going for a top-five, podium or win – are not worried about him. They really don’t expect him to be up there. To race and do well at a race like Flanders you need a special skillset. One is being able to cope with the stress of it all – and we’ve seen Remco lose it a few times. Another is staying on your bike and not crashing. I’m not sure he has those skills.

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