Evenepoel Pips Ciccone in Desperate Sprint to Become European Champion

Remco Evenepoel found redemption after a disappointing road race at the world championships, becoming European road race champ for the first time in his pro career after a dramatic finale.

The Belgian outsprinted Giulio Ciccone (Italy) at the line but had to wait for the result of a photo finish to confirm the win. Ciccone got a better line through the last corner and opened a lead of several bike lengths, but lost out by a tiny margin.

Evenepoel was fueled by pride and stubbornness, being determined to show well after his worlds disappointment and going into hulk mode after he went clear with Ciccone on the penultimate lap but crashed.

He took an uphill bend too fast and lost his front wheel, with his Belgian team keeping him within range and enabling him to jump up to Ciccone once again.

The Italian declined to work on the final lap, taking only one brief turn near the finish, and took the final corner better.

This gave him an important gap over Evenepoel but the Belgian wouldn’t be denied, chasing furiously all the way to the line and then lunging past. His throw to the line was better than that of Ciccone and this was just enough to give him the victory.

Christian Scaroni raced in 59 seconds back to make it an Italian silver and bronze, while Toms Skujiņš (Lavia) leap clear of a chase group to nab fourth, 1:13 back and three seconds ahead of Iván Romeo (Spain) and others.

Evenepoel was lucky not to be too affected by his fall. “It was a bit of a tricky situation the second last time on the climb. I put a nice attack but I went a bit too fast in the corner and I just slipped away,” he said.

“I think there I could have gone, but in the end we stayed calm and we came back to the plan. Then I put in an attack just before the descent and then I was with Cicco in the front.

“We worked together pretty well. The sprint was looking a bit…I thought I was not going to get it anymore, but then I saw him slowing down quite a lot with 100 meters to go and I just came just over him on the finish line.”

Evenepoel won the junior European road race championships in 2018 but this was his first time to take the distinctive blue and white jersey as a pro.

He took the time trial twice, in 2019 and 2025.

Evenepoel hits the deck, bounces back

The elite men’s road race was 197km in distance and, like the women’s race, featured a mostly flat opening section of 85km prior to the start of the finishing circuit. The men would complete five laps compared to the women’s two, with the climb of Možjanca the main obstacle.

Six riders went clear very early on and had over a minute the first time over the finish line, but they were all caught with 82km remaining. The climb saw a large number of riders dropped from the peloton, including Juan Ayuso (Spain), and the contenders continued to dwindle with each passing lap.

Roglič’s Slovenia team took control of the pace the penultimate time up the climb but rather than the multiple Vuelta winner attacking, it was instead Giulio Ciccone (Italy) who leaped clear on with 36.3km remaining.

Evenepoel joined him almost immediately and then went past, launching a very aggressive surge, but went too fast into a right hand curve and lost the front wheel, crashing.

Ciccone went over the summit alone, chased by Roglič, while behind Evenepoel’s Belgium team were chasing hard and kept the Italian leader within range. He subsequently jumped clear and got up to Ciccone, with the two of them 12 seconds ahead of a group of chasers with 25km left.

Those behind trying to get across included Roglič, Toms Skujiņš (Latvia), Emil Herzog (Germany), Iván Romeo (Spain), Evenpoel’s teammates Ramses Debruyne and Maxim Van Gils, French trio Léo Bisiaux, Manhys Rondel and Clément Braz Afonso plus Christian Scaroni (Italy).

Roglič was under pressure as the home rider and did a lot of the chasing, but these were 26 seconds behind starting the final lap.

Rondel and Scaroni leaped clear in pursuit but with Evenepoel setting the pace out front the whole way up the climb, those two chasers were almost a minute back.

Scaroni attacked Rondel close to the summit in an attempt to bridge. Evenepoel was on a mission, though, and he had no chance of bridging. However there was still an advantage as once this information was passed on from a race moto, Ciccone made clear to Evenepoel that he couldn’t contribute. The Belgian wasn’t happy but continued driving onwards, hoping to win the sprint.

Ciccone finally started to ride inside the final 3km, making the decision after his team car drew alongside. However his contribution was minimal, with the Italian clearly trying to stay as fresh as possible.

Evenepoel led into the final corner but Ciccone got a better line and came past him. He launched early, opened several lengths, but Evenepoel chased hard all the way to the line and took the photo finish.