{"id":1780321,"date":"2026-02-19T03:28:06","date_gmt":"2026-02-19T00:28:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1780321"},"modified":"2026-02-19T03:28:06","modified_gmt":"2026-02-19T00:28:06","slug":"evenepoel-collapse-a-red-flag-or-just-a-bad-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1780321","title":{"rendered":"Evenepoel Collapse a Red Flag or Just a Bad Day?"},"content":{"rendered":"
Updated February 19, 2026 03:34AM<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Remco Evenepoel and his fairytale start to 2026 ended bitterly on the steepest climb so far this season at the UAE Tour.<\/p>\n
Does the stinging time loss on Wednesday on the kind of climb he\u2019ll be facing off against Tadej Poga\u010dar and Jonas Vingegaard later this season raise red flags, or is it just early-season jitters?<\/p>\n
\u201cMy legs didn\u2019t feel fresh all day. I hadn\u2019t digested that tough time trial the day before well. At the beginning of that final climb, I got caught by the first attackers, and I paid the price,\u201d Evenepoel said at the line. \u201cThe climb was poorly paced, which wasn\u2019t tactically smart of me. Maybe I got a bit overconfident because Del Toro had already dropped out.\u201d<\/p>\n
After seven wins in 10 race days, Evenepoel\u2019s dream debut lost its wings a day after he powered to his fastest-ever time trial victory.<\/p>\n
The Belgian superstar handed back all that time and more on Wednesday\u2019s brutal summit finish, and lost touch when the race ignited and paid for overeager pacing in the heat and wind. He plummeted to 11th overall at 1:44 back.<\/p>\n
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It\u2019s easy to say this is only February and nothing really matters until later this season.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s partly true, but Evenepoel wanted to win the UAE Tour, and now he has almost no chance.<\/p>\n
Of cycling\u2019s \u201cBig 3,\u201d only Evenepoel is racing, so it\u2019s hard to draw too many direct conclusions.<\/p>\n
Vingegaard pulled the plug on the UAE Tour after illness and a crash. Poga\u010dar waits for his debut at Strade Bianche next month.<\/p>\n
But a high-profile crack on a decisive climb in any stage race is far from ideal in cycling\u2019s big-money, no-room-for-error pressure cooker for supremacy.<\/p>\n
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\u2018It\u2019s not a disaster\u2019<\/h2>\nEvenepoel blew up on Jebel Mobrah.<\/span> (Photo: Tim de Waele\/Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
Wednesday\u2019s GC collapse is noteworthy because it reveals perhaps Evenepoel\u2019s biggest chink in his armor \u2014 his sometimes patchiness in the harder climbs.<\/p>\n
Winning stage races requires consistency and limiting losses when things go off the rails. And Evenepoel is specifically targeting these kinds of one-week stage races this year.<\/p>\n
This one was a red-line effort in mid-February, but it\u2019s the latest in a pattern of Evenepoel running hot and cold in sometimes disconcerting regularity.<\/p>\n
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Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe brass shook off suggestions that something else is wrong with its blockbuster star signing.<\/p>\n
\u201cRemco probably hadn\u2019t fully recovered from that time trial, but I think that was the case with several other guys,\u201d Lodewyck told Het Nieuwsblad<\/em>. \u201cHe was also way too enthusiastic at the start of that climb. If you saw where Del Toro was, he really had to pace himself.<\/p>\n
\u201cRemco just had a good feeling, but then he completely exploded. If you see the values from that first kilometer, it makes sense. But I don\u2019t think it was pure cramps.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lodewyck is telegraphing that one bad effort after what\u2019s been an otherwise stellar season debut isn\u2019t a reason to panic.<\/p>\n
February form is notoriously all over the map, and it looks like Evenepoel went too hard too soon and paid for it.<\/p>\n
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Just look at Del Toro. He lit up Monday\u2019s opening stage to surprise the sprinters, bled time in the short race against the clock on Tuesday, then struggled early in Wednesday\u2019s climbing finale only to pounce late to gap Evenepoel to move back within striking distance of the leader\u2019s jersey.<\/p>\n
Evenepoel vows to regroup and target another ego-salvaging win on Saturday\u2019s summit finale at Jebel Hafeet.<\/p>\n
Like he\u2019s done after high-profile collapses, similar to the 2023 Vuelta a Espa\u00f1a, Evenepoel usually comes out swinging to race on pride despite losing GC options.<\/p>\n
Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe is taking the long view.<\/p>\n
\u201cWould we have preferred it to be different? Absolutely, but it wasn\u2019t a disaster.\u201d Lodewyck said ahead of Thursday\u2019s transition stage tipped for the sprinters. \u201cWe\u2019re going to try to win another stage with Remco on Saturday.\u201d<\/p>\n
No season ever unfolds without a few hiccups.<\/p>\n
The most important thing right now for Evenepoel is to continue racing without serious injuries, crashes, or season-altering mishaps that have dogged his past few campaigns.<\/p>\n
But on the steepest slopes, even the aero bullet can stall. Something to worry about against the likes of Vingegaard and Poga\u010dar later this season? Time will tell.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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Andrew Hood<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Updated February 19, 2026 03:34AM<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/velo.outsideonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/25.jpg”] Andrew Hood Updated February 19, 2026 03:34AM Remco Evenepoel and his fairytale start to 2026 ended bitterly on the steepest climb so far this season at the UAE Tour. Does the stinging time loss on Wednesday on the kind of climb he\u2019ll be facing off against Tadej Poga\u010dar and Jonas Vingegaard later […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[226,71],"class_list":["post-1780321","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-crawlmanager","tag-velo-outsideonline-com"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1780321","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1780321"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1780321\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1780321"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1780321"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1780321"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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