{"id":261871,"date":"2026-09-10T08:48:32","date_gmt":"2026-09-10T08:48:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2026\/09\/10\/why-not-both-remco-evenepoel-kicks-off-project-canada-with-big-ambitions-and-good-feelings-for-grands-prix-de-quebec-and-montreal\/"},"modified":"2026-09-10T08:48:32","modified_gmt":"2026-09-10T08:48:32","slug":"why-not-both-remco-evenepoel-kicks-off-project-canada-with-big-ambitions-and-good-feelings-for-grands-prix-de-quebec-and-montreal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2026\/09\/10\/why-not-both-remco-evenepoel-kicks-off-project-canada-with-big-ambitions-and-good-feelings-for-grands-prix-de-quebec-and-montreal\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8216;Why not both?&#8217; \u2013 Remco Evenepoel kicks off &#8216;Project Canada&#8217; with big ambitions and good feelings for Grands Prix de Qu\u00e9bec and Montr\u00e9al"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div id=\"article-body\">\n<p id=\"elk-b4f4f2ec-acb8-11f1-a148-b9d2ddeb5214\">Tour de France runner up <a data-analytics-id=\"inline-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.cyclingnews.com\/riders\/remco-evenepoel\/\" data-url=\"https:\/\/www.cyclingnews.com\/riders\/remco-evenepoel\/\" data-hl-processed=\"none\" data-article-category=\"pro-cycling\" data-mrf-recirculation=\"inline-link\" data-before-rewrite-localise=\"https:\/\/www.cyclingnews.com\/riders\/remco-evenepoel\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Remco Evenepoel<\/a> (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) will return to racing for the first time since the Cl\u00e1sica San Sebasti\u00e1n this week, tackling the Grands Prix Cyclistes de Qu\u00e9bec and Montr\u00e9al as he chases some lofty goals in the final part of the season.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;Project Canada&#8217;, as he dubbed it on Strava, includes this week&#8217;s two Grands Prix, followed by the <a data-analytics-id=\"inline-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.cyclingnews.com\/uci-road-world-championships\/\" data-url=\"https:\/\/www.cyclingnews.com\/uci-road-world-championships\/\" data-hl-processed=\"none\" data-article-category=\"pro-cycling\" data-mrf-recirculation=\"inline-link\" data-before-rewrite-localise=\"https:\/\/www.cyclingnews.com\/uci-road-world-championships\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">World Championships<\/a> in Montr\u00e9al, where he&#8217;ll seek to defend his world title in the time trial next weekend, and then add a second road race victory to his palmar\u00e8s the following Sunday.<\/p>\n<p><a id=\"elk-seasonal\"\/><\/p>\n<aside data-article-category=\"pro-cycling\" data-block-type=\"embed\" data-render-type=\"fte\" data-skip=\"dealsy\" data-widget-type=\"seasonal\" class=\"ecom-root\"\/>\n<p id=\"elk-b4f4f2ec-acb8-11f1-a148-b9d2ddeb5214-2\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"kiosq-b\">Already the double Olympic champion in Paris two years ago, Evenepoel also has the unique chance of becoming the first male rider to win both elite world titles at a single Road Worlds.<\/p>\n<div class=\"my-6 w-full overflow-hidden rounded-[10px] lg:my-8\" data-component-name=\"JwPlayer:Carousel\" data-jwp-carousel=\"\" data-jwp-carousel-payload=\"{&quot;ids&quot;:{&quot;playerID&quot;:&quot;jYDCcabO&quot;,&quot;searchPlaylistID&quot;:&quot;gwjdoYHD&quot;,&quot;divID&quot;:&quot;botr_gwjdoYHD_jYDCcabO_div&quot;,&quot;fallbackPlaylistID&quot;:&quot;gwjdoYHD&quot;,&quot;fallbackDivID&quot;:&quot;botr_gwjdoYHD_jYDCcabO_div&quot;,&quot;key&quot;:&quot;X9\\\/mXVGac0NphghLH9hZaqWA5d3dhAM\\\/Ih07grnEyMLjuO2E&quot;,&quot;tintLogo&quot;:true,&quot;useSearchPlaylist&quot;:false,&quot;enabled&quot;:true},&quot;signPostingEnabled&quot;:true,&quot;signPostingLinkEnabled&quot;:true,&quot;waitForAdLoad&quot;:false,&quot;hidePlayerOnDesktop&quot;:false,&quot;hidePlayerOnMobile&quot;:false,&quot;hidePlayerOnTablet&quot;:false}\">\n<div class=\"flex flex-nowrap items-center justify-between gap-3 bg-zinc-900 px-[14px] py-3\" data-jwp-carousel-header=\"\">\n<p><span class=\"inline-flex items-center gap-1.5 text-sm font-article-heading capitalize leading-5 text-white whitespace-nowrap\"><span class=\"jwp-carousel-title-mobile\"\/><span class=\"jwp-carousel-title-desktop\">Latest Videos From<\/span><span class=\"jwp-carousel-brand\">Cyclingnews<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"kiosq-b\">As a result, despite taking a solid break away from racing after the Tour, the work hasn&#8217;t let up for Evenepoel this summer, who quickly returned to a long altitude training camp to prepare for the final goals of the season.<\/p>\n<p aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"kiosq-b\">&#8220;The time went quickly. It&#8217;s been a month without racing \u2013 after San Sebasti\u00e1n I had a few days of rest and then since then, I was training at altitude for three and a half weeks. And then the journey here, it was quite quick, so the last month has passed quickly,&#8221; he said on Wednesday evening.<\/p>\n<aside data-component-name=\"Recirculation:ArticleRiver\" data-recirculation-type=\"inline\" data-mrf-recirculation=\"Trending Bar\" data-nosnippet=\"\" class=\"clear-both pt-2 pb-0 mb-4\">\n        <span class=\"&#10;            flex&#10;            after:content-[''] after:flex-1 after:ml-4 after:my-[0.7rem] after:border-t after:border-solid after:border-t-[#ccc]&#10;            before:content-[''] before:flex-1 before:mr-4 before:my-[0.7rem] before:border-t before:border-solid before:border-t-[#ccc]&#10;            font-article-heading pb-0 text-[length:var(--article-river-title--font-size,1em)] uppercase sm:text-[length:var(--article-river-title--font-size,0.875em)] font-bold&#10;        \"><br \/>\n            You may like<br \/>\n        <\/span><\/p>\n<\/aside>\n<p aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"kiosq-b\">&#8220;Everything has gone well. Training at altitude, it&#8217;s always a bit different, a bit harder to manage the fatigue and training and everything, but it general it went well. There&#8217;s still a little bit of time to get into the best form possible for the World Championships, there&#8217;s still two weeks until that race. But obviously this weekend coming is going to be important for my preparation and finding my best legs, the best sensations, and be in the racing again.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"kiosq-b\">Though Evenepoel has a firm focus on the World Championships, where two rainbow jerseys are up for grabs, and admits that the first races are primarily about &#8220;getting the feeling back, seeing where I&#8217;m at&#8221;, he&#8217;s not a rider who can ever go into a race without at least half an eye on winning.<\/p>\n<div id=\"slice-container-newsletterForm-articleInbodyContent-xgozc6pfXHjeTCdtmZoFDa\" class=\"slice-container newsletter-inbodyContent-slice newsletterForm-articleInbodyContent-xgozc6pfXHjeTCdtmZoFDa slice-container-newsletterForm\">\n<div data-hydrate=\"true\" class=\"newsletter-form__wrapper newsletter-form__wrapper--inbodyContent\">\n<div class=\"newsletter-form__container\">\n<section class=\"newsletter-form__top-bar\"\/>\n<section class=\"newsletter-form__main-section\">\n<p class=\"newsletter-form__strapline\">The latest race content, interviews, features, reviews and expert buying guides, direct to your inbox!<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"kiosq-b\">&#8220;Generally, it&#8217;s preparation for the World Championships, but obviously there&#8217;s the ambition to win,&#8221; he said. &#8220;In every race, I&#8217;ll aim as high as possible. That&#8217;s how I start every race, so I won&#8217;t approach these races any differently.<\/p>\n<p aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"kiosq-b\">&#8220;Especially Qu\u00e9bec, it has that very specific final climb. I think the climb suits me better now than before. That&#8217;s why I&#8217;m here with ambitions to win \u2013 that&#8217;s always the case when I start races. We&#8217;ll see how it goes, but the ambition is definitely there to try and win one of the two, or why not both?<\/p>\n<p aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"kiosq-b\">&#8220;These are races that I&#8217;ve not won before, so of course I would like to add them to my palmar\u00e8s. So I will start each with the idea of winning, that&#8217;s for sure.&#8221;<\/p>\n<aside data-component-name=\"Recirculation:ArticleRiver\" data-recirculation-type=\"inline\" data-mrf-recirculation=\"Trending Bar\" data-nosnippet=\"\" class=\"clear-both pt-2 pb-0 mb-4\">\n        <span class=\"&#10;            flex&#10;            after:content-[''] after:flex-1 after:ml-4 after:my-[0.7rem] after:border-t after:border-solid after:border-t-[#ccc]&#10;            before:content-[''] before:flex-1 before:mr-4 before:my-[0.7rem] before:border-t before:border-solid before:border-t-[#ccc]&#10;            font-article-heading pb-0 text-[length:var(--article-river-title--font-size,1em)] uppercase sm:text-[length:var(--article-river-title--font-size,0.875em)] font-bold&#10;        \"><br \/>\n            What to read next<br \/>\n        <\/span><\/p>\n<\/aside>\n<p><a id=\"elk-67140a36-acf4-11f1-9883-bbf8b9fac387\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"kiosq-b\"\/><\/p>\n<h2 id=\"why-not-both-3\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"kiosq-b\">Why not both?<\/h2>\n<p id=\"elk-67140aae-acf4-11f1-8af5-b7f59b713e80\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"kiosq-b\">And indeed, the other &#8216;why not both?&#8217; question on the table is the matter of winning both the time trial and road race at the World Championships, a feat never achieved by an elite male rider in the same year.<\/p>\n<p aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"kiosq-b\">&#8220;How often has a rider won both the time trial and the road race at the same World Championship? Never,&#8221; he said. &#8220;That was my goal last year, and it is again this year. It is something I want to do in my career.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"kiosq-b\">Buoyed by his second place at the Tour de France, and indeed a fruitful Classics campaign before that, Evenepoel knows this is something he is capable of this year. The last few weeks of training, then, haven&#8217;t been about reinventing the wheel, but more building on the form he already has, and shaping that around the final goals of 2026.<\/p>\n<p aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"kiosq-b\">&#8220;I think it&#8217;s clear that you need to have a bit more explosivity for these races coming, so obviously we&#8217;ve looked at that. We&#8217;ve worked more on the sprint. So the training has been a bit different to before the Tour de France.<\/p>\n<p aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"kiosq-b\">&#8220;That&#8217;s normal because these aren&#8217;t races where you climb for 20km, these races have more just hills than mountains, so it&#8217;s different,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"kiosq-b\">&#8220;But in general I think we&#8217;ve done good work, we&#8217;ve kept the form I had and added some finishing touches, so overall everything has gone as we would have liked.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><a id=\"elk-b4f4f468-acb8-11f1-aa78-a37bd48e503c\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"kiosq-b\"\/><\/p>\n<h2 id=\"the-pogacar-question-and-the-van-aert-one-3\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"kiosq-b\">The Poga\u010dar question \u2013 and the Van Aert one<\/h2>\n<p id=\"elk-b4f4f508-acb8-11f1-91bf-3d1b4672913b\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"kiosq-b\">Like every big rider here in Qu\u00e9bec, one of the main questions put to Evenepoel was about the absence of <a data-analytics-id=\"inline-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.cyclingnews.com\/riders\/tadej-pogacar\/\" data-url=\"https:\/\/www.cyclingnews.com\/riders\/tadej-pogacar\/\" data-hl-processed=\"none\" data-article-category=\"pro-cycling\" data-mrf-recirculation=\"inline-link\" data-before-rewrite-localise=\"https:\/\/www.cyclingnews.com\/riders\/tadej-pogacar\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Tadej Poga\u010dar<\/a>, who won&#8217;t be able to defend his world title after a nasty crash at the Vuelta a Espa\u00f1a ended his season prematurely. Without the imperious Slovenian on the start list, the expectation is that the Worlds road race, and indeed the GPs to come this week, will take on a very different shape.<\/p>\n<p aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"kiosq-b\">&#8220;When Tadej is there, everyone wants to defend or just follow him, but it&#8217;s not easy. I would say that now you have to come with new tactics. Clearly it&#8217;s going to change [the racing] because normally you have to take control of the race. We&#8217;ll talk about it again in two weeks, but obviously it changes things,&#8221; Evenepoel said.<\/p>\n<p id=\"elk-67140b94-acf4-11f1-9139-cffcd83b448f\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"kiosq-b\">He gently questioned Belgian national coach Serge Pauwels saying &#8220;it changes our whole strategy&#8221;, and was understandably coy about what exactly that might mean.<\/p>\n<p aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"kiosq-b\">&#8220;For me, in my head, it&#8217;s not always best to say it like Serge did. It&#8217;s better to keep the tactics to yourself a bit, but that&#8217;s his choice. So yeah it will change things, but that&#8217;s what it is, so we have to do it without Tadej now.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"kiosq-b\">What could also change things for Evenepoel is the fact that his compatriot Wout van Aert seems to be arriving at top shape just in time for the World Championships. Whilst there&#8217;s debate over whether or not the course is too hard for riders like Van Aert, his success at the Vuelta has already started the debate around possible leadership struggles or divides in the Belgium camp.<\/p>\n<p aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"kiosq-b\">Evenepoel, for his part, was characteristically diplomatic when asked about that topic \u2013 as Van Aert has been too.<\/p>\n<p aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"kiosq-b\">&#8220;I think he found good form at the right time. Obviously, it&#8217;s still a long way to the road race, so he has to maintain it, but he has enough experience to manage the gap between the Vuelta and the World Championships road race,&#8221; he said. &#8220;It&#8217;s great to see that he&#8217;s ready and in good shape. I hope he has a great final week and comes out of the Vuelta in peak condition.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"kiosq-b\">Whether that peak condition will be used to race for himself or to support Evenepoel, though, is another question, and one we probably won&#8217;t know the answer to until the Sunday of the Worlds road race.<\/p>\n<p id=\"elk-67140c02-acf4-11f1-a5b0-35854350984e\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"kiosq-b\"><strong>For unbeatable coverage across road, gravel and tech, subscribe to Cyclingnews. You&#8217;ll get comprehensive race coverage of La Vuelta a Espa\u00f1a, subscriber-exclusive analysis from our expert columnists, in-depth features and industry-leading tech insight. Plus, the Cyclingnews app lets you follow the action wherever you go! <\/strong><a data-analytics-id=\"inline-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.cyclingnews.com\/subscription-paid\/?utm_source=Referral+link&amp;utm_medium=Website&amp;utm_campaign=LV26\" target=\"_blank\" data-url=\"https:\/\/www.cyclingnews.com\/subscription-paid\/?utm_source=Referral+link&amp;utm_medium=Website&amp;utm_campaign=LV26\" data-hl-processed=\"none\" data-article-category=\"pro-cycling\" data-mrf-recirculation=\"inline-link\" data-before-rewrite-localise=\"https:\/\/www.cyclingnews.com\/subscription-paid\/?utm_source=Referral+link&amp;utm_medium=Website&amp;utm_campaign=LV26\" rel=\"noopener\"><u><strong>Join today.<\/strong><\/u><\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cyclingnews.com\/pro-cycling\/teams-riders\/why-not-both-remco-evenepoel-kicks-off-project-canada-with-big-ambitions-and-good-feelings-for-grands-prix-de-quebec-and-montreal\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Tour de France runner up Remco Evenepoel (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) will return to racing for the first time since the Cl\u00e1sica San Sebasti\u00e1n this week, tackling the Grands Prix Cyclistes de Qu\u00e9bec and Montr\u00e9al as he chases some lofty goals in the final part of the season. &#8216;Project Canada&#8217;, as he dubbed it on Strava, includes [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":261872,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6804],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-261871","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cycling"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/261871","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=261871"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/261871\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/261872"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=261871"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=261871"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=261871"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}