Cycling History was Made Today

CafeRoubaix (a cycling based Twitter/X account) pointed out that Remco Evenepoel is now the only rider ever to have won at least one of each of the 4 biggest types of race the sport has to offer.

All at the age of 24. This is incredible.

He has won: 1x Grand Tour (Vuelta a Espana) 2x Monuments (Both Liege-Bastogne-Liege) 2x World Championships (1 Time Trial, 1 Road Race) 1x Olympic Gold (Time Trial)

This next part is for non cycling viewers to explain what that means.

Grand Tours are our biggest events. These races take place over 21 days of racing and are unquestiinably the most grueling our sport has to offer. The Tour de France is the biggest of these, and the one most people will have heard of but there are also the Italian (Giro d'Italia) and Spanish (Vuelta a Espana) versions which are also very prestigious. Remco has won one Vuelta, was on his way to winning a Giro last year before a Covid DNF and podiumed the tour this year on his first attempt.

The Monuments are a collection of five one day races. These have history going back 100+ years and are longer than most other races. Winning a monument can make a career, and Remco has won one of them twice so far.

World Championships are well regarded as well. The winner gets to wear a special jersey with rainbow bands as the defending world champion for a year. There is both a time trial (solo effort where you go against the clock) and the road race. Remco has won both of these.

And then of course, there are the olympics. Despite podiuming the Tour de France in a 3 week battle around France, Remco has gone and won the time trial.

We will see if he can make further history in the road race. He will be up against the best one day racer in the world, Mathieu Van Der Poel at Mathieu's main target for the season so it will be a tough ask. Expect him to go for a long range attack and try to stay ahead.