21 things you didn’t know about Remco Evenepoel

Remco Evenepoel is just 23 but has already won two Monuments, a Grand Tour and the World Championships, so you can understand why there's so much hype around the Belgian.

The northern European country has been waiting for a Grand Tour winner for so long that there was pandemonium after his Vuelta a España triumph last year, especially as it was followed by victory at the worlds weeks later.

1. Remco Evenepoel's father, Patrick, was briefly a professional cyclist in the early 1990s, winning the Grand Prix de Wallonie in 1993. He went on to be a plasterer, while his mother is a hair stylist

2. He was once captain of RSC Anderlecht and the Belgian national football team at age-group levels, before dropping out of football and turning professional in cycling. He played at left back and in central midfield

3. He ran a half marathon in 1-16.15 aged 16, finishing 13th at the Brussels Half Marathon in 2016

4. Evenepoel only started cycling full-time aged 17, joining the Forte Young junior team and then Acrog-Pauwels-Sauzen-Balen BC club before switching to Quick-Step as he crossed into senior racing

5. In 2018, his last junior year, he racked up mind-boggling 23 victories in 27 race days. The Belgian was the first ever rider to win the World Championship road race and time trial in the same year at junior level

6. He was so young when he joined what was then Deceuninck-Quick Step that he was the first WorldTour rider to be born in the 21st Century

7. Remco fractured his pelvis and suffered a contusion to his right lung after crashing over the side of a small bridge and falling into a ravine at Il Lombardia in 2020

8. Early in his time with Quick-Step the idea of sending him to race with the Belgian under-23 cycling team was floated, because of his lack of experience riding in a bunch

9. For a man from Flanders, he doesn't like cobbles, and once ducked out of the Flanders sportive because he didn't enjoy it. He told ProCycling magazine in 2019: "“The cobbles don’t suit me. I mean, the other week, I went for a ride near home. There was a Tour of Flanders sportive going on, and the course was marked out, so I started following the arrows, but after the first sector of cobbles, I just turned for home. I couldn’t do any more. And the rain was too heavy as well.”

10. Evenepoel is the face of Pizza Hut in Belgium, having done multiple adverts for the American pizza chain - not that he eats in that often

11. His wife, Oumi Rayane, revealed via her Instagram that Remco plans his menu out on a kitchen whiteboard. It included tacos, sweet potato fries, omelette, and risotto

12. He was the first Belgian winner of a Grand Tour in 44 years when he pulled on the red jersey at the Vuelta a España last summer. He was also the first rider in the 21st century to win Liège-Bastogne-Liège in two consecutive years

13. He doesn't post publicly on Strava anymore, after working out that it was a way that his rivals can work out how good his form is. That doesn't prevent him from occasionally popping up and claiming a few KOMs, however, or posting races

14. Remco, along with Oumi Rayane, is an ambassador for Safety Jogger shoes, one of Soudal Quick-Step's sponsors

15. When he was 19, Evenepoel stated his ambitions as winning the three Grand Tours, the World Championships and and an Olympic title. He has already done two of these, with the 2022 Vuelta and Worlds

16. He normally wears black shorts with his rainbow jersey, but paired it with white shorts in an all-white skinsuit for Liège-Bastogne-Liège in 2023, which he won

17. Remco received a call from the King of the Belgians, Philippe, after his victory at the Vuelta - it appears that the Belgian royalty knows who is the real star

18. He is still a football fan, appearing last year on the pitch at his former club, Anderlecht, and is friends with Belgium and Real Madrid goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois

19. Ineos Grenadiers were reportedly interested in signing him after his incredible 2022, with team boss Dave Brailsford texting Quick-Step boss Patrick Lefevere to tell him if he ever wanted to sell the prolific Belgian, he should get in touch. However, Evenepoel has a contract with Quick-Step until 2026

20. As well as his cycling titles, Evenepoel won the Velo d'Or, the Flemish Sport Jewel, the Flemish Giant, the Flandrien Trophy, Sportsman of the Year, and the Crystal Bike awards in 2022

21. He might just be 23, but a statue of the Belgian already exists, on Mount Fóia in Portugal, marking his victory at the 2020 Tour of the Algarve