Remco Evenepoel (Soudal Quick-Step) has revealed that the shoulder injury from his December 2024 training crash is not a closed chapter but a permanent physical handicap that must be managed after every major effort against the clock.
Speaking on the Café Koers podcast from Het Nieuwsblad, the reigning world time trial champion detailed the ongoing cost of his position in the aerobars. "After every time trial, I need a solid treatment," he said, linking the deep aerodynamic tuck to pain and dysfunction in his right shoulder.
Evenepoel collided with the open door of a postal van on 3 December 2024, suffering multiple fractures and, more critically, serious nerve damage in his right shoulder. Earlier in 2025 he admitted that the "extra nerve problem" had "completely stopped [the] shoulder from functioning" and added: "If I were a tennis player, my career would be over."
In the podcast, Evenepoel went on to offer more detail about the chronic nature of the injury. "I can no longer take food from the back pocket of my jersey with my right hand," he said. "Let me tell you an anecdote from Liège–Bastogne–Liège. I had absent-mindedly put two gels on that side of my jersey and my arm got stuck. The sports director, Klaas Lodewyck, had to hold my jersey so I could get them out."
The new admission clarifies that the damage is not fully repaired but chronically controlled. The world’s leading time triallist is holding his position in the very posture that aggravates the injury, then heading straight to the treatment table.
In 2025 Evenepoel retained his world time trial title in Kigali, completed a hat-trick of rainbow jerseys and, for a period, held all four major time trial crowns – World, Olympic, European and Belgian. The physiology behind those numbers is stark: every medal ride finishes with medical work on a shoulder that will never be normal again.
The narrative around Evenepoel’s comeback has focused heavily on his depression and psychological recovery following his crash, which he also outlined in the podcast, explaining, "I was unconsciously depressed at the time".
While his psychological recovery has been healthy, in physical terms he will need to continue to learn to race at world-beating power output while accepting a chronic mechanical limitation in one side of his upper body.
