Remco Evenepoel (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) and Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck) have joined forces for a low-key but high-profile pre-season training block on Spain’s Costa Blanca, logging base miles together near Calpe and Alicante.
The Belgian time trial World Champion and the Dutch former road World Champion are more used to trading blows in Monuments and rainbow-jersey shoot-outs. This winter, as seen on Strava and first reported by Belgian outlet Het Laatste Nieuws, they are instead sharing the same wheels on familiar training roads in the region that acts as cycling’s winter capital.
The first visible activity appears on the profile of Van der Poel’s regular riding partner Freddy Ovett, with Arvid de Kleijn and Luke Verburg also in the elite group. Just under 2,000m of elevation over 129km at an average speed of 32kph makes for a punchy pace, but realistically it’s little more than a café ride for Evenepoel and Van der Poel.
On paper the two riders represent rival empires: Evenepoel beginning his much-hyped chapter with Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe, Van der Poel the reigning king of one-day chaos in Alpecin-Deceuninck colours. Add in the looming presence of Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) and you have the standard script of superstar stand-off.
Yet the images from Spain suggest something softer – two of the peloton’s ultimate “protagonists” treating pre-season like what it fundamentally is, long days in the saddle with good company.
Costa Blanca training camps are nothing new, but collaborations at this level still feel like a crossover episode. It hints at the tight-knit reality behind cycling’s galácticos, and quietly signals that while Pogačar continues to warp expectations, the rest of the A-list is very much comparing notes together on the open road.
