Overview
- Remco Evenepoel will make his Tour of Flanders debut on Sunday, creating a rare one-day clash with Tadej Pogacar and Mathieu van der Poel in their trade teams.
- Pogacar enters as the clear favorite after wins at Strade Bianche and Milan–San Remo, and on Friday he warned rivals not to let Evenepoel launch unchecked long-range attacks.
- Red Bull–Bora–Hansgrohe admitted it kept Evenepoel’s entry secret for about 100 days as a planned communications strategy, and it has built a dedicated classics support unit around him.
- Recent cobbled races have featured big moves from far out, yet Pogacar noted that Flanders’ 278 km length makes lone breakaways harder to reel in once they stick.
- Belgium has not celebrated a Flanders winner since 2017, heightening local hopes that Evenepoel or Wout van Aert can end the drought on the cobbled climbs that define the race.