Remco Evenepoel had a career-best performance at this year\u2019s Tour de France, taking two stages and finishing second overall in Paris. It\u2019s a step up from his 2024 debut and vastly better than last year\u2019s disappointment, where he took one time trial but was a non-finisher.<\/p>\n
The Belgian rider exited the race feeling good and also fired up to do more; he won the Cl\u00e1sica San Sebastian for a record fourth time and has big ambitions for the remainder of the season.<\/p>\n
But, looking longer term, his new coach Tim Heemskerk believes the Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe rider can make further strides.<\/p>\n
The reason for his confidence? Partly because their collaboration didn\u2019t get off to a good start at all, cutting into the time Evenepoel had to prepare for the Tour.<\/p>\n
The duo had just started working together, and Evenepoel had traveled to Sierra Nevada to do altitude training in advance of the Tour.<\/p>\n
He was due to do a tough training session, but ended up ringing Heemskerk in a frustrated state.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was startled. A rider calling you in the middle of a training session usually isn\u2019t to say that everything is going fantastically,\u201d Heemskerk told Het Nieuwsblad<\/em> in a long interview.<\/p>\n \u201cRemco said he couldn\u2019t finish the intervals. Not even the first set \u2026\u201d<\/p>\n Heemskerk had worked previous with Jonas Vingegaard, winner of the 2022 and 2023 Tours, and runner-up to Tadej Poga\u010dar in 2021, 2024 and 2025.<\/p>\n The training session he had prescribed for Evenepoel was very similar to that he would previously do with the Danish rider.<\/p>\n But, with problems immediately cropping up, he had to drastically modify those plans.<\/p>\n Heemskerk explained to Het Nieuwsblad<\/em> what was wrong, and how they moved to address it.<\/p>\n \u201cYou sometimes see this with explosive riders who are coming back from an injury or a longer rest period: they produce lactate very quickly. Remco had that too,\u201d he explained. \u201cBut he had only rested for a few days after his podium finish in Li\u00e8ge-Bastogne-Li\u00e8ge. So what we saw wasn\u2019t what you would expect.\u201d<\/p>\n That required a complete change. The workouts were modified to reduce intensity and to focus more on endurance, riding at a level where lactate would be produced but also broken down. The intensity was gradually ramped up, with the final week at altitude reaching the level that Heemskerk wanted him to do.<\/p>\n \u201cLuckily, he wouldn\u2019t be racing anymore before the Tour. That way, we could push all the intense training,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n And that\u2019s the reason for his optimism that Evenepoel has further room for improvement.<\/p>\n \u201cIf he can train fully from that first week of altitude camp, I feel even more is possible,\u201d he said. \u201cThat starts in the winter. My motto is always: do what\u2019s necessary, but not as much as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n He believes additional improvement can be gained by better structuring the season and avoiding the spree with which Evenepoel started his season.<\/p>\n \u201cI also saw how Remco was already moving the stones off the street in February,\u201d he said, referring to the power he was putting out. \u201cThe only question is: should you do that if your main races are only a few months away?\u201d<\/p>\n Heemskerk\u2019s extensive work with Vingegaard enabled him to compare notes and benefit from what he had learned from his time with the double Tour winner. He aimed to bring his new rider to the level of Vingegaard, and believed Evenepoel was in the right place starting the Tour.<\/p>\n There are clear differences between those riders, he notes, with Vingegaard slightly more of a climber and Evenepoel more of a time trialist, and so he adjusted the training accordingly to build up strength in the uphills.<\/p>\n Months later, what is clear is that the collaboration has flourished. That\u2019s reassuring, and vindicates the decision for Heemskerk to begin working earlier than planned.<\/p>\n He had been due to start in August, but Evenepoel himself requested that the partnership began sooner.<\/p>\n \u201cHis coach Dan Lorang left for Lidl-Trek and Remco didn\u2019t want a temporary solution until August,\u201d Heemskerk explained. \u201cHe wanted me to start right away so we could work together towards the Tour. My experience with Jonas appealed to him.\u201d<\/p>\n Next up is the Grand Prix Qu\u00e9bec and Montr\u00e9al races in mid-September and then the world road championships slightly later in the month.<\/p>\n Can he peak again?<\/p>\n \u201cI definitely believe so,\u201d Heemskerk said. \u201cBut I still need to get to know Remco. An experienced coach once told me: \u2018The magic only starts after three years.\u2019 I hope that with my own experience and Remco\u2019s, it can happen a bit faster, especially since we\u2019ve already been able to work closely together over the past months, but it always takes time.\u201d<\/p>\n Everything is clearly going in a good direction, though, boosting morale for Evenpeoel and also for the team.<\/p>\n And while Poga\u010dar is still well ahead, Evenepoel is over a year younger and, in theory at least, has time on his side in his bid to win the Tour.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n [analyse_source url=”https:\/\/velo.outsideonline.com\/road\/road-racing\/tour-de-france\/remco-evenepoel-coach-even-more-possible\/”]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" [analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/velo-cdn.outsideonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/GettyImages-2288621066.jpg”] Shane Stokes Updated August 7, 2026 08:03AM Remco Evenepoel had a career-best performance at this year\u2019s Tour de France, taking two stages and finishing second overall in Paris. It\u2019s a step up from his 2024 debut and vastly better than last year\u2019s disappointment, where he took one time trial but was a […]<\/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-2083510","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\/2083510","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=2083510"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2083510\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2083510"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2083510"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2083510"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\u2018What we saw wasn\u2019t what you would expect\u2019<\/h2>\n
![\"Two](\"https:\/\/velo-cdn.outsideonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/GettyImages-2288597235.jpg?width=3840&auto=webp&quality=75&fit=cover\")
Three years to reach the magic?<\/h2>\n