Updated May 28, 2026 03:32PM
The Tour de France starts in July. One of its top contenders is heading to the start line with a 68-day racing gap — and not by accident.
Remco Evenepoel is spending the entire time training.
Most contenders for cycling’s biggest race will compete at some point between now and the July 4 start to the 2026 edition in Barcelona.
Not Remco. The Belgian superstar is taking the most unconventional approach of any of the major podium challengers and will not race before July.
In the Tour’s modern era, no eventual winner has ever arrived at the start line with a racing gap this long.
“We’ve seen that Remco can achieve a very high level without having to take part in preparation races,” sports director Patxi Vila told Dernière Heure.
“We prefer a straight line to the Tour. That should allow him to reach Barcelona more relaxed and in better shape.”
Evenepoel has not raced since finishing third at Liège-Bastogne-Liège behind Tadej Pogačar and Paul Seixas in late April.
Barring any last-minute changes, he will not pin on another race number until the Tour de France starts in Barcelona on July 4.
That will leave him with a remarkable 68-day gap between races. That’s unprecedented in modern cycling.
Will Red Bull’s big Evenepoel bet pay off?
Evenepoel’s radical new approach
Evenepoel and teammate Jan Tratnik ahead of Liège-Bastogne-Liège, his last race in April. (Photo: Jasper Jacobs / Belga / AFP)
This 2026 Tour blueprint throws cycling convention on its head.
A 68-day racing gap would rank among the largest in modern Tour history for any podium contender, with one notable exception.
Jonas Vingegaard was sidelined for nearly 90 days after crashing out at Itzulia Basque Country in early April 2024. The Dane battled back from neck and shoulder injuries to reach the Tour, but still finished second to Pogačar.
What makes this different is that is that Evenepoel’s 68-day racing detour is a choice, not a necessity caused by injury or illness.
No Tour winner over the past 30 years has arrived in July carrying anything close to that kind of racing gap. Every rider going back decades has raced either the Giro or other tuneup races in June.
And the stakes couldn’t be higher for Evenepoel, who is chasing something no Belgian has managed in 50 years. Lucien Van Impe was the last to win the yellow jersey in 1976.
So why now?
Red Bull’s high-altitude gamble
Evenepoel has been parked atop Sierra Nevada for weeks. According to the Belgian media, he’s been posting six- and seven-hour rides mixing long endurance sessions with shorter, high-intensity efforts.
The idea is that without racing, Evenepoel will arrive fresher and sharper to face podium rivals Pogačar, Seixas, and Vingegaard, who is racing this month at the Giro d’Italia.
Vila told Dernière Heure that the team is intent on eliminating almost all risk before a high-pressure return to the Tour.
“We want to keep control of the workload and the process,” Vila said. “We want to prepare him down to the last millimeter for the Tour de France.”
Last year, following a difficult off-season marred by a crash, Evenepoel abandoned the Tour in frustration in 2025. Now-Red Bull teammate Florian Lipowitz stepped up to finish third.
The team returns to the Tour with both riders as co-leaders but each are taking different approaches. Lipowitz — who last raced to second behind Pogačar at the Tour de Romandie — will compete at the Tour of Slovenia in late June.
Evenepoel will not.
The risk of not racing
Evenepoel, shown here alongside Primož Roglič, struggled in the 2025 Tour de France (Photo: Marco Bertorello / AFP)
Of course, there is a risk in racing, when a crash or illness can wipe out months of work.
There’s also a risk of not racing, by coming into a race too rusty or a half-pedal stroke off racing speed.
And there’s no easing back into competition. Evenepoel’s first race day back will be the explosive and decisive opening team time trial in the technical, greasy urban streets of Barcelona.
That’s only compounded for the Tour, where every rider on each eight-racer roster is in absolute peak form.
The decision was first announced in early May when Red Bull confirmed the Tour Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes would be removed from the Belgian’s approach toward July.
“We decided together with Remco to take a break from racing after an intense spring,” Red Bull chief of sport Zak Dempster said at the time. “The goal is for him to arrive in Barcelona completely fresh. After analyzing his 25 race days, we see greater benefit in a balanced alternative program than in adding further race load.”
The team is hoping weeks at altitude will help Evenepoel build climbing form and shed some weight.
He struggled on the longer, steeper climbs throughout the spring, exactly the terrain where he must be at his best to challenge for the podium in Paris on July 26.
This is a bold departure for Evenepoel, who raced the rebranded Dauphiné in both 2024 and 2025 ahead of his previous two Tour starts.
He will even skip the Belgian national championships in late June, a sign that reveals how committed Red Bull and Evenepoel are to this daring, new roadmap to the Tour.
How Pogačar and Seixas are preparing
Evenepoel is not alone in Sierra Nevada.
Pogačar and Seixas have also been in the Spanish mountains this month, but both will return to racing before July.
Seixas has been posting significant numbers on Strava, with monster rides packed with thousands of meters of climbing. The French phenom will race at Tour Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes next month, where he will face the likes of Isaac del Toro.
Pogačar heads to the Tour de Suisse. Vingegaard will step back from racing after the Giro concludes Sunday in Rome.
None of the top favorites will line up with as many idle days as Evenepoel will carry into Barcelona.
The hype surrounding this year’s Tour will be off the charts, especially with Seixas set for his Tour debut.
Evenepoel will need to be at his peak to fight for a podium spot behind the overwhelming favorites Pogačar and Vingegaard.
Only once the Tour hits the first major climbs will everyone know whether 68 days away from racing was a masterstroke or a costly bust.
