The lead directeur at QuickStep-Alpha Vinyl has likened world champion and Vuelta winner Remco Evenepoel to Lance Armstrong, saying he had already seen many of the same character traits in the young Belgian.
He said when Evenepoel won the Vuelta in Madrid, before the final stage of the race he was already quizzing members of the team staff about the upcoming World Championships as he was a rider who could never race enough and never win enough.
“It may be a wrong comparison, but in terms of character I do see similarities between Remco and Lance,” QuickStep-Alpha Vinyl directeur Klaas Lodewyck told Ride Media.
“Apart from everything that went wrong with Armstrong in the past, Lance was also someone who could never win enough,” he said, an apparent reference to Armstrong's doping history, the fact he was banned from pro cycling for life and stripped of his seven Tour de France wins for using a cocktail of drugs in each of those races.
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“If he was at the start somewhere, he wanted to be the best. Remco has always wanted to win that too. On the last Sunday morning of the Vuelta a España in Madrid, he already started talking to us about the World Championships in Wollongong. It's never enough. That also shows that he is always driven to be the best and to win races.
“Lance was a killer. If you kicked his shin, he kicked back ten times harder. Usually he did this on a bicycle and sometimes also verbally. Remco also has that killer mentality. He also often answers with performance on the bike. Although Remco is a lot more diplomatic in his comments.”
Evenepoel has enjoyed an incredible 2022, which started with a stage win at Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana (2.Pro) followed by a stage and overall victory at Volta ao Algarve em Bicicleta (2.Pro).
He then went on to win Liège-Bastogne-Liège (1.UWT) with a long-range solo breakaway before winning three stages at the Tour of Norway (2.Pro) and the overall. Evenepoel also won a stage at Tour de Suisse before capturing the Belgian TT title and winning Donostia San Sebastian Klasikoa (1.UWT) again.
He then went on to win two stages and the overall at La Vuelta, in just his second start in a Grand Tour, before claiming the world road race title in Wollongong with another long-range solo escape.
