Remco Evenepoel says he doesn't see his year as a full-blown victory in 2023, despite winning 12 wins and bringing his career total wins this season to 50.

On the eve of the awarding of the Top Belgian Cycling Award, Kristalen Fiets, Soudal-QuickStep rider has already won twice, Evenepoel ran the rules over what has proven to be roller coaster season in an extensive interview with the organization newspaper Het Laatste Nieuws. It was a good idea.

In 2023 Evenepoel has won a total of 13 wins so far. Liege-Bastogne-Liege, Classica San Sebastian, UAE Tour, Road World Championship Time Trial title, multiple stages of Giro d'Italia, various stages and mountain titles of Vuelta a Espana, Tour de Switzerland and Volta a Catalunya It included stage wins for the Belgian National Championships and road races for the Belgian National Championships.

However, 2023 will also be remembered for the 23・year・old's failure to score the best final result in either the Giro d'Italia GC or the Vuelta a España.

"I can't give myself 10 out of 10 for my season, not even 8.5 or 9," Evenepoel said. "I only won the major races, but this could have been even better with COVID-19 driving me out of the Giro d'Italia, or a little better preparation for the Vuelta a Espana.

"From that perspective, I can't believe my season was a complete success."Even if I was confident I could win the Giro without illness, I put around 30 seconds into my gc rival in the opening time trial, describing it as "the best 20 minutes of the year." Sadly, getting sick is also part of the race."A win at the Giro would also have seen him not choose to return to defend his 2022 Vuelta title, he said. After admitting it before heading to Spain, he found himself playing catch〜up, training too little during road races and time trials in the first world, then training up to 7-8 hours at altitude in Andorra.

"You do it not in the last 10 days, but 1 month before the grand tour," he said.

Evenepoel also told Het Laatste Nieuws that ongoing discussions and rumors about his possible move to the Ineos Grenadier also indirectly acted on his mind.

"It was really extreme for a while and I just wanted to be alone," he said. "I felt good in preparation for the world, but it must have drained some energy.

As for the day of his GC disaster at Tourmaletto in the Vuelta a España, Evenepoel revealed in hindsight that there were signs that things were not going well. "In Jabalamble" - he lost 30 seconds in the first week - "We had the worst days as a team, then in the rest of the day I did not roller and half an hour 40 or 50 kg, a sign that I was tired. Then in the time trial [Stage 10 in Valladolid] I was good, but not big.

However, Evenepoel pointed to Jumbo-Visma's strategy of identifying rivals' weaknesses rather than focusing on their own strengths as one of the reasons for their superiority and defeat in the Vuelta a España, but he also agreed that counterattack was his main weapon.

"Answering with the pedal is in my character," he said. "Adversity draws greater power in me. In the Vuelta, I needed 1 bad day to take me to another level."

Next year Evenepoel will definitively head to the Tour de France, but attempting a third victory at Liege-Bastogne-Liege is probably not only one of his goals, but also his debuts at Milan-San Remo and Paris-Nice. Tours in Flanders, however, remain much less likely.

But globally, too, Paul is trying to spend more time with his family and says that instead of starting the season on May 2023, as in 2 May, he will probably start on May 1.

However, regardless of his reservations, his third Vuelta a Espana stage brings his total of 9 wins to a very impressive total of 50 wins this month, and after his crash at Il Lombardía and ninth place, the last road victory of 2023 will still come for Evenepoel on Sunday at the Chrono Denations Maybe. Then the holiday.