Remco Evenepoel rides the 44th Chrono des Nations on Sunday 18 October 2026 in Les Herbiers, in the Vend\u00e9e. The Belgian of Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe, 26, is back on the bike eight days after Il Lombardia on 10 October. The reason is his new time trial bike, which he wants to try again in a race before closing the season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For Evenepoel the season does not end with the Classic of the Falling Leaves. There is still a time trial to ride, on roads he already knows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
About 200 riders line up at the start, from U17s to professionals. Among the elite men Evenepoel is the name to beat: he is the reigning Olympic time trial champion and has already raced twice in Les Herbiers among the senior ranks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The start is from the ramp in front of the town hall in Les Herbiers. The finish is in place de la Gare, in the same town centre.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Not all categories race the same distance. The courses range from 16.65 km to 45.43 km<\/mark>, depending on who is racing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The programme is split into two blocks. The elite women and the espoirs start at 14:20. The elite men start at 15:20, and the podium ceremony is from 17:00.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Evenepoel has explained that he is riding the Chrono des Nations to keep testing the new time trial bike developed with Specialized. There are still aspects of the bike to improve, and a real race is worth more than a day of testing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It is no small detail for the reigning Olympic time trial champion. A new machine is judged in competition, with a number on the back and a clock that shows no mercy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It is a choice that stretches an already full season by a week, for work that matters more to a champion of his level than a result: finding out whether the new bike is ready.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Evenepoel has already won in Les Herbiers, but in 2018 and among the juniors. Among the elite his best result is a second place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In 2021 he finished 5th at 1\u201922\u201d<\/mark> from Stefan K\u00fcng, who won that edition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In 2023 he finished 2nd, beaten by 13 seconds by Joshua Tarling. Over two editions the gap to the winner has shrunk to a few seconds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In recent years the elite race has had two masters. K\u00fcng won in 2021, 2022 and 2024, Tarling in 2023 and 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Among the senior riders, Evenepoel has not yet managed to break into this sequence. On Sunday he tries to do so on a new bike, and that makes the challenge different from the previous ones.<\/p>\n\n\n\n On Saturday 10 October Evenepoel finished Il Lombardia in 4th place. How the race went is told in Paul Seixas wins Il Lombardia solo, aged twenty<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Before the start, the fagIAno gave him a 39,2%<\/mark> chance of winning. That percentage, though, applies to a road race: in a time trial it does not say who starts as favourite.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Il Lombardia shows that Evenepoel\u2019s form in mid-October is still high. About the time trial it says little: it is a different race, a different bike, a different kind of effort, and on 18 October it is ridden alone against the clock.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Remco Evenepoel rides the Chrono des Nations in Les Herbiers on 18 October, eight days after Il Lombardia, to test his new time trial bike once more.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4038,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_fagianata_traduzione":3811,"fagianata_corsa":"chrono-des-nations-2026","notizia_livello":"","notizia_paese":"","notizia_numero":"","notizia_numero_detto":"","fagianata_via":"","disciplina":"","fagianata_anno":0,"_fagianata_indice":"","fagianata_tappa":0,"fagianata_tappa_data":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"protagonisti":[292,237,311],"class_list":["post-4039","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","formato-notizia","scheda-pezzo--tinta","tinta--strada"],"fagianata_protagonisti":["elisa-longo-borghini","remco-evenepoel","stefan-kung"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lafagianata.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4039","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lafagianata.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lafagianata.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lafagianata.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lafagianata.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4039"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lafagianata.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4039\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lafagianata.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4038"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lafagianata.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4039"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lafagianata.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4039"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lafagianata.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4039"},{"taxonomy":"protagonisti","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lafagianata.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/protagonisti?post=4039"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Why Evenepoel is racing again<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Evenepoel in Les Herbiers: the record<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
2021: fifth on his elite debut<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
2023: second behind Tarling<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
K\u00fcng and Tarling share the latest editions<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Il Lombardia says little about this time trial<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Sources<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![Wikimedia Commons<\/a>; processing: la fagIAnata.<\/li><\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Remco Evenepoel rides the Chrono des Nations in Les Herbiers on 18 October, eight days after Il Lombardia, to test his new time trial bike once more.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4038,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_fagianata_traduzione":3811,"fagianata_corsa":"chrono-des-nations-2026","notizia_livello":"","notizia_paese":"","notizia_numero":"","notizia_numero_detto":"","fagianata_via":"","disciplina":"","fagianata_anno":0,"_fagianata_indice":"","fagianata_tappa":0,"fagianata_tappa_data":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"protagonisti":[292,237,311],"class_list":["post-4039","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","formato-notizia","scheda-pezzo--tinta","tinta--strada"],"fagianata_protagonisti":["elisa-longo-borghini","remco-evenepoel","stefan-kung"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lafagianata.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4039","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lafagianata.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lafagianata.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lafagianata.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lafagianata.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4039"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lafagianata.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4039\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lafagianata.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4038"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lafagianata.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4039"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lafagianata.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4039"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lafagianata.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4039"},{"taxonomy":"protagonisti","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lafagianata.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/protagonisti?post=4039"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}](\"https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File:REMCO_EVENEPOEL.png\"){kind=link}