Deceuninck-QuickStep manager Patrick Lefebvre said that the 2021 Tokyo Olympics may be Remco Evenpole's best chance for a gold medal, and that over the next five years the 20-year-old and Tour de France He added that he hopes to win the Tour de France.

In his second professional season, Evenpohl was already one of the favorites for gold at the Tokyo Olympics; before the event was postponed a year due to COVID-19, he had been selected for both the road race and time trial, which take place on a tough course around Mt.

With the 2024 Olympics to be held in Paris and likely to be on a mostly flat course, Lefebvre believes that next summer will be Evenpoel's best chance for a gold medal in a long time.

"Lemko has always said he wants to be in the Olympics in road and time trial. He's already automatically selected and it only comes once every four years," Lefebvre told Sporza (open in new tab).

"In 2024 it will be held in Paris. What kind of course will it be? Next year could be Lemko's chance to become an Olympic champion.

Now in his 18th year leading the team, Lefebvre said he plans to continue for a while yet.

He will turn 66 in January, but he trusts the team around him and proposed something like a five-year plan to win his first Tour de France with Evenpoel.

"It's not enough yet, but I'm not going to stretch it out forever," Lefebvre said. 'But I'm not going to stretch it out forever. In fact, there are only two things I have to do.

"I want a five-year project. That way I can build something around Lemko and we can bring a Tour victory to Belgium. But if I have never won the Tour de France with my own team, that will not be my epitaph."

In addition to looking to the future, Lefebvre reflected on the 2020 season. With 39 wins, the Belgian team surpassed all other teams for the eighth consecutive year.

Lefebvre credited 2020 as a good year for the team, despite the many injuries and the COVID-19 epidemic that delayed the season, and chose Julian Alaphilippe's World Championship win in Imola as the moment of the season.

"Despite the three-month blockade and five injuries, some of them serious, we succeeded. 'Lemko Evenpoel accomplished a lot in 2020. He ran four stage races and won them all. Our young rider Joao Almeida wore the pink jersey for 15 days at the Giro, and Sam Bennett won the green jersey on the Champs Elysees.

"Everyone says the same thing every year: 'Next year it's impossible. But for the last eight years (or more) I've done it over and over again."

"Julian Alaphilippe's world title. It's always strange to have a world champion on the team. I'm impressed. I especially like the way he did it. Everyone knew that Alaphilippe was going to attack there, but he got away.

"People say Primoš Roglic didn't run his full race in the chase, but I don't think he could have done better. Even the riders in that group said that he couldn't have done any better."