Is Remco Evenepoel satisfied with his debut? Absolutely yes, and he has made it clear that the Tour of Flanders will continue to be part of his calendar and that soon, Paris-Roubaix could also become a regular fixture in his season. "Of course I'm satisfied with how the race went and with the result too: my teammates were fantastic. It's a real privilege to be able to race with guys like them".

The Belgian raced his first Tour of Flanders and his third place behind Van der Poel and winner Tadej Pogacar is a positive result that he will be able to improve in the coming years.

"At the beginning I felt things were going well, but obviously climb after climb, I started to accumulate fatigue. The Oude Kwaremont has a gradient that suits a rider like me very well, but the Paterberg is very short and more demanding. It's a climb that suits riders like Pogacar and Van der Poel better. If there's a lesson I need to learn, it's this".

Remco Evenepoel stayed with the Dutchman and the Slovenian as long as he could, but when Pogacar started to change pace, that's when the Belgian began to lose ground. "When Tadej moved to the front, I noticed they were immediately pulling away a bit. Maybe Van der Poel wanted me to catch up on purpose. I was also hoping to be able to recover, so I could rest my legs a bit in the final. But it required a constant effort and that was really destroying me".

Evenepoel sees third place as a good result, but he knows he still needs to improve if he wants to fight for victory in a race like the Ronde.

"Anyway, I learned another important lesson: I need to improve my explosiveness if I want to do well in a race like the Ronde". As for the other Monument Classics, Evenepoel talks about Milan-Sanremo and Paris-Roubaix.

"As for Roubaix, I can't lie and I say we're leaving the door open, but we haven't discussed it yet. Sanremo? With the finales we've been seeing in recent years, the race could be very suited to me. I'll probably start with that next year".