Remco Evenepoel (Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe) confirmed on April 1 that he will start the Tour of Flanders on Sunday, but the decision was not made this week. Instead, the team embarked on what it described as 100 days of secrecy beginning in December when speculation of his attendance first began.
According to team manager Ralph Denk, the move had been kept internal for more than 100 days, with public denials serving as deliberate cover for what was already an operational plan.
On December 27 and 28, Evenepoel was already scouting the Flanders parcours with team staff. By that point, his participation had been agreed. Yet as recently as the Volta a Catalunya, the rider and his team were still telling journalists he would not be on the start line. The surprise, in other words, was the communication strategy, not the racing decision.
Denk laid this out directly. "A plan like this does not come together overnight," he said on the team website. "We deliberately kept it under the radar to create a special moment for the fans, revealing it as a surprise on April 1. The fact that we were able to keep this internal for more than 100 days speaks to the cohesion and unity of this team."
Messaging and misdirection
While keeping a schedule under wraps is a valid communication strategy, Red Bull–Bora Hansgrohe has drawn criticism for directly misleading journalists ahead of the announcement.
Posting on X (formerly Twitter), journalist Daniel Benson reported a flat denial of Evenepoel's attendance on the morning of the announcement. While a team has a right to preserve their communication plan, directly misleading a journalist to preserve the impact of an announcement sets a concerning precedent about the expectation of transparency from pro cycling teams.
Indeed, this wasn't a frivolous last minute decision.
Evenepoel's own footage from December 27 records the winter planning. In a YouTube video filmed on December 27, he stood on top of the Koppenberg in unmarked black kit and said: "We're the 27th of December, it's very cold outside and we're here on the top of Koppenberg, which means that I have to reveal something. I'll be riding the Tour of Flanders this year." He wore black, he explained, because he could not yet appear in Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe clothing and did not want to be seen in his former team's colours. On the second day of reconnaissance, Gianni Vermeersch (Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe) joined him alongside team staff including directeur sportif Sven Vanthourenhout.
That timeline makes the public denials look very different in hindsight. At the team's December media camp in Mallorca, Evenepoel was asked whether he would add Flanders to his spring programme. His answer was no. He told Sporza: "How certain is it that I won't be starting in the Tour of Flanders? Very certain. 100 percent certain. I have to disappoint you." Those statements were not miscommunication. They were part of the plan.
While that plan rewarded the team's announcement ambitions, it cost not only a big story for all journalists attending the camp, but months of news leads and analysis around Evenepoel's attendance.
The national story
Evenepoel's debut adds another rider capable of forcing long-range decisions to a field that already includes Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG), Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Premier Tech) and Wout van Aert (Visma-Lease a Bike). It will be the first time since the 2024 Tour de France that all four riders start in the same race. Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe had rebuilt its cobbled Classics squad for 2026, adding Vermeersch and Vanthourenhout and developing riders like Laurence Pithie and Tim van Dijke.
For Belgian cycling fans the announcement could not be more significant. The Tour of Flanders is the fundamental celebration of cycling as a statement of Flandrien national pride. Flanders-born Evenepoel's attendance at the race means more than just another Belgian favourite, but promises an extremely rare opportunity for Belgian fans to see a national icon in action on home roads.
Whether months of preparation translate when the Koppenberg arrives at race speed for the first time remains to be seen.
Cover image credit: Maximilian Fries / Red Bull Content Pool
