"I Thought About That Last Metre Every Day For Twelve Months" — Remco Evenepoel Closes The Book On 2025's Amstel Defeat In A Berg En Terblijt Press Conference, Credits An Improved Sprint Finish, And Opens The Flèche–Liège Chapter Of His 2026 Ardennes Week
Sunday 17:48 CET. The Amstel Gold Race press-conference room at the Berg en Terblijt finish was packed fifteen minutes before Remco Evenepoel took the microphone — the first Belgian Amstel Gold Race winner since Philippe Gilbert's 2017 victory, and a rider who had spent the previous ten months answering questions about why he had not won a one-day race since last October. The press conference lasted 22 minutes. It covered three themes: the 2025 defeat, the 2026 sprint finish, and the Wednesday-Sunday twin-target ahead. And it delivered the single quote the Monday morning papers will lead with. "I thought about that last metre every day for twelve months. Today I got it back."
Evenepoel opened the conference by dismissing the pre-race framing of "revenge" and replacing it with a word he used four times: redemption. "Revenge is against a person. I have no revenge against Mattias [Skjelmose]. He won fair in 2025, he rode a better sprint, he deserved that win. What I wanted today was the redemption — to finish the race that I did not finish twelve months ago, in the same place, with the same legs, and with a better sprint. I think I did that." Asked if the 2025 defeat had changed his winter training, he confirmed it had been the single driver of his December-February programme: "Every interval session I did between November and February had a sprint finish. Every one. I told my coach: we are not losing that race in the last twenty metres again."
The sprint finish — the single component of Evenepoel's Classics game that had been questioned for two seasons — was the technical centrepiece of the press conference. He walked the room through the Cauberg finale, move by move. "I took his wheel at 250 metres because I wanted him in front. Mattias is a pure sprinter on the Cauberg finish — he pulls away from most riders in the last hundred metres. My mistake in 2025 was kicking too early. Today I waited. At 80 metres he kicked; at 50 metres I matched him; at 30 metres I came around him on the outside." The message inside the message: the Evenepoel sprint is now a learned piece of tactical cycling, trained and deliberate, rather than the instinctive uphill kick that had defined the 2023-2024 period.
Pressed on the 2026 Ardennes week, Evenepoel carefully avoided the word "triple". He has not won La Flèche Wallonne — two second-place finishes in 2022 and 2023 — and the Mur de Huy remains the one climb that has consistently refused to open for him. "La Flèche is three days away. I have finished second twice. I would like to win, yes. But I have not won that climb yet and I am not going to promise anything. What I can promise is that on Wednesday I will try. On Sunday at Liège-Bastogne-Liège, Tadej [Pogacar] is there. That is the race I have been pointing at all spring. Today's win gives me confidence, but Liège is still Tadej's race to lose."
The Pogacar-versus-Evenepoel subplot — cycling's defining rivalry of 2026 and the single most-read storyline of the spring — was addressed with a characteristic combination of respect and confidence. "Tadej is the best rider in the world. I have said that every press conference since 2023. But I beat him at the Olympics, I beat him at the Worlds time trial, and today I won my first Amstel. I am closing the gap. Liège next Sunday is where we see whether the gap is closed completely or whether there is still work to do." The quote will be tomorrow morning's back-page headline across the Belgian press and the single most-shared cycling soundbite on X/Twitter for the next 48 hours.
On the non-racing section of the press conference, Evenepoel was direct about the Jorgenson-Vauquelin crash at kilometre 148. "I did not see the crash — we were on the front of the race, eight kilometres further on. I heard on race radio. Matteo is one of my best friends in the peloton, Kévin I know well from the national-team camps. I hope both are okay. The rain at that point in the day was forecast. We all saw it coming. Classics racing is what it is — sometimes the corner wins." The full injury bulletin is expected at 20:00 CET with the Maastricht UMC+ scan results.
Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe sporting director Zak Dempster closed the press conference with a short operational summary: Evenepoel will ride an easy recovery spin on Monday morning in Liège, travel to Charleroi on Tuesday for course recon of the final 60 kilometres of Wednesday's Flèche Wallonne, and race the Mur de Huy on Wednesday with the same six-rider support cast that delivered Sunday's Amstel. The Thursday-Saturday recovery window is a training camp in Aywaille, 12 kilometres from the start of Liège-Bastogne-Liège. "We have waited two years for a day like today," Dempster told the room at 18:10 CET. "Wednesday and Sunday are our next two chances. We will take them one at a time." The Ardennes chapter has its headline, and the headline is redemption.