Tour de France 2024: Remco Evenepoel believes Tadej Pogacar will be 'almost unreachable' - 'the man to beat'

Updated 27/06/2024 at 06:57 GMT

Remco Evenepoel has been assessing his Tour de France chances. The Belgian will take part in the race for the first time this year when it gets underway on Saturday. He believes he has "arrived in the best shape possible." However, when it comes to predicting who might land the yellow jersey, the 2022 Vuelta a Espana champion insists that two-time winner Tadej Pogacar is the man to beat.

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Remco Evenepoel admits he is not sure who can stop Tadej Pogacar at this year's Tour de France.

The race gets underway in Florence, Italy on Saturday, June 29, live on Eurosport and discovery+.

Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) will be looking to defend the title he has won over the last two years, but a broken collarbone, sustained in April, leaves questions over his fitness.

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And in Soudal-Quick Step rider Evenepoel's eyes, that makes Pogacar - himself a two-time champion - the clear favourite.

"I expect Tadej to be unreachable, almost," he said. "I think what he showed in the Giro is already super impressive and he didn't have to go too deep, so it won't have tired him out.

"I think Tadej will be the man to beat for this Tour de France."

Pogacar won the Giro d'Italia earlier this year, and will be lead rider for UAE Team Emirates. He says he has "never felt so good" ahead of the race.

Evenepoel, meanwhile, is part of Soudal Quick-Step's eight-man squad.

The Belgian is competing in the Tour de France for the first time, but has major-race winning history, after coming first at the 2022 Vuelta a Espana.

His preparations have not been without their own hiccups, having also been involved in the mass pile-up at the Itzulia Basque Country.

He then came seventh in the Dauphine, before being forced to miss the Belgian Championships due to a minor illness.

That, he says, will be no excuse when the Tour gets underway.

"I need to be happy with what I did in the past two or three weeks, I've arrived in the best shape possible," he continued.

"From the Dauphiné on, I tried to push myself to the maximum every day. So from that side, I don't have to blame myself for not training hard enough or pushing hard enough.

"I was really happy with the time trial win at the Dauphiné, it showed the base form was there. The mountain form wasn't there yet, the weight and the details you need to be a good climber weren't there yet.

"But I worked on that in the training camp and at home, so my confidence wasn't affected after the Dauphiné.

"Now I think I'm a few percentage points ahead of where I was at the Dauphiné."

discovery+ is the streaming home of the Tour de France this summer, with live coverage running June 29 to July 21.

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