The fact that Remco Evenepoel spent the morning of the Grand Prix de Québec practising what new victory celebration he wanted to try out probably tells you everything you need to know about his confidence levels – and form – right now.
The Belgian has come to Canada for an intense and important block of racing, starting with the Grands Prix but quickly following with double ambitions in both the time trial and road race at the World Championships in Montréal.
In theory, the Canadian GPs are just a warm-up, and a return to racing after over a month of training. But when you’re Remco Evenepoel, nothing is ever really anything but a race for the win.
To his credit, he did somewhat ease himself back into racing on Friday, making a point not to get too keen too early, and even saying he didn’t feel good in the first 100 kilometres. But once his legs had warmed up, Evenepoel couldn’t resist a hit-out to take a signal-sending victory.
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“This weekend [it] was the goal to do as good as possible twice, and it’s a pretty good start, I must say,” he said after winning.
“So, really happy with that, [it was] a really hard race. I think with the new final, it’s probably a bit harder than how it was in the past. But yeah, I mean, for me, it was good like this, so very happy with today, with how the team worked, and with my feeling in the last few laps.”
It wasn’t a total display of dominance – Evenepoel ‘only’ attacked in the final three laps – and he admitted he didn’t feel the best early in the day, but stayed calm and collected.
"Sometimes it's like this, that you start a bit with like heavy legs, and then after three hours it gets loose," he explained. "And I also had this often on training camps, so I think it's something that I was a bit used to from the last weeks. That's also why I never panicked and tried to stay calm and sometimes gamble, but luckily it was good in the last few laps."
It certainly was good, with his repeated accelerations not enough to drop companion Giulio Ciccone (Lidl-Trek) but enough tire him to the point where he couldn't match the Belgian in the sprint. But despite taking this big win, Evenepoel was clear he's certainly not peaking too early or getting ahead of himself before the bigger goals still to come.
"I think I still have a bit of work to do. This weekend, I really wanted to use it to find the best sensations. It’s clear I wasn’t on a bad day, otherwise you don’t win here, but personally, I didn’t feel like it was really my best day on the bike. So I think it’s clear there’s still a bit of room for improvement," he said.
"There are still two weeks before the road race, so I’m really going to use this weekend to take a step forward, then follow it up with the time trial, and then another week to do specific training. But clearly it was good, because otherwise you don’t win."
As well as the physical sensations, this weekend of racing – both in Québec and Montréal – will offer important tests for riders to start to read and plan the tactics for what will surely be a complicated Worlds road race, and Evenepoel certainly proved his eye for timing on Friday.
"It's something that usually suits me well, [trying] to find a good moment on circuit races. Because I had the feeling that many guys wanted to open the race too early, already like eight laps to go, with still like seven or eight times the climb to go. And at some point you pay for it, because it was a headwind to get to the finish line," he explained.
"So that's why I gambled when everybody started to put in the big moves, and then I tried to give it a shot with three laps to go, I think. Luckily, it was a good tactic. But it's going to be important as well for Sunday, and also for Sunday in two weeks. It's good that my timing is still there."
A new celebration
As for that new celebration – posing as if holding a telescope to one eye and pointing forward with his other hand – it seemed like it could be read as a sign for viewers to look ahead to the Worlds, but Evenepoel explained that he hadn't quite come up with the meaning yet.
"It's pretty funny because the thing is, the 'dialled in' celebration was something I copied," he said, referencing the 'putting the phone down' celebration he's employed various times, including when he won the Olympic road race in Paris.
"Oumi [his wife] and her brothers always told me that I need to find something of my own. So, it was quite a bit of work to find something, but luckily, I had a month to think about it. And actually, this morning, I was calling with Oumi, and then we decided to go for this one. So, I hope it's going to be my signature celebration from now on.
"The meaning, I still need to find something for that, what the meaning behind it is. But I hope it was looking good."
Meaningful or not, it was an early debut for the new gesture, and one he'll certainly be hoping he can pull out at least once more over these next few weeks in Canada.
