Remco Evenepoel crowned European road cycling champion in Slovenia

Remco Evenepoel is the new European road cycling champion. Twice second in 2021 and 2025, and missing out on his race at the Montreal Worlds last week, the Belgian was determined to give everything to capture the white and blue tunic, Sunday October 4, in Slovenia. And it is only by a few centimeters, ahead of the Italian Giulio Ciccone, that he adds this race to his already very extensive list of achievements. Remco Evenepoel succeeds Tadej Pogacar who has insufficiently recovered from his fall in the Vuelta to defend his throne on his native lands.

The Belgian and the Italian were clearly the two strongest riders of the day. They turned the race around on the penultimate climb of Mozjanca (2.1km at 10%) when Ciccone launched his first attack 36km from the finish. Evenepoel then followed him and even tried to restart. Despite a fall in a corner at the start of his endeavor, the latter rallied to get back to the front of the race with the help of his teammates. He then made a new attack on the descent and only Giulio Ciccone followed him.

No medal for France

The two men flew away. Behind, the pursuit quickly became disorganized. The group of ten riders, made up of three Frenchmen, Clément Braz Afonso, Léo Bisiaux and Mathys Rondel, was hampered by the presence of two Belgians, Maxim van Gils and Ramses Debruyne, but also of an Italian, Christian Scaroni, who extricated himself from the group on the last climb of Mozjanca to go for the bronze medal.

In this race which is traditionally successful for French runners, medalists in five of the last six editions (with a title for Christophe Laporte in 2023), the French team leaves empty-handed. Léo Bisiaux is the best classified of the collective composed by Thomas Voeckler, ninth, 1'19" behind the winner.