For fans with a strong sense of déjà vu over Lemco Evenpoel and the furor surrounding his participation in the final countdown before the 2022 Vuelta a España, the young Belgian star is at pains to prove them wrong on at least one point.

Compared to his Grand Tour debut at the 2021 Giro, the Quick-Step Alphavinir pro said Thursday that his buildup to the Vuelta bears virtually no resemblance at all.

Evenpoel started the 2021 Giro after a long layoff following a major crash and injury at Il Lombardia in 2020.

"I've had a great season so far and it's completely different from last year compared to before the Giro. For my head and legs, this is a totally different Lemko."

"I've had a great season and I'm very happy with the results.

However, with Evenepoel listed as the leading contender to win the Vuelta outright, behind three-time consecutive winner Primoš Roglic (Jumbo Visma), interest in how the Belgian will fare is growing as fast as, or even faster than, the Giro last May

"I'm worried.

"It's nothing to worry about," said Evenpoel when asked about being a top contender among the bookies, "I don't think about that for the next three weeks."

All Quick-Step Alphavinir thinks about, he insisted, is delivering the best possible performance while he focuses on the overall, starting with Friday's team time trial win and Julien Alaphilippe's stage win.

"A win tomorrow [Friday] would be the best case scenario, a dream start and a big pressure off. [The first week is difficult. It's no secret that northern Spain is a difficult area to race, but when it comes to GC, it's not just about the first 10 days. From Alicante [stage 10] onwards, the GC race will be in full swing."

Unlike in 2021, when Quick-Step fielded Fabio Jacobsen in the Vuelta, the lack of sprinters limits Evenpoel's team options on the flat stages, but he says his team still has "15 other opportunities."

"For three weeks I will focus on my goal, but the more stages the better; I can only talk about GC after stage 21, but I can aim for both."

Evenpoel's buildup to the overall contenders includes a lot of work on the longer climbs, and he said he "built a big, wide base with some intensity efforts in the last camp in Spain to get used to the heat."

"But I prepared as relaxed as possible and we accomplished that. We had long runs on the climbs in Livigno and Alicante. In Liège and the Basque Country I ran at a pace of 1, 2, or 3 minutes, but this time I ran at a pace of 15 to 20 minutes."

But even if Evenpoel took a different approach to this September's Vuelta than he did to the Giro, media interest in how he would perform has only declined since a small army of Belgian journalists gathered at the Italian Grand Tour in 2021. had only diminished.

While Vuelta coverage in the Netherlands was logically boosted by the race start in Utrecht, the Belgian media spotlight on Evenpoel and the Spanish Grand Tour was arguably much larger in proportion, and on Friday the Flemish newspaper Het Nieuwsblad ran an article and competition asking if readers could identify all 10 Vuelta winners of the past 15 years by photo, and its great rival, Het Laatste Nieuws, even had a "Vuelta Update Live" page. Furthermore, anecdotal evidence suggests that this year there are more Belgian journalists participating in the Vuelta than in the last ten years combined.

That interest will not diminish if Evenpoel and his team win tomorrow's opening TTT, beating the local favorite, Dutchman Jumbo Wisma, and of course gaining time on Roglic. Evenpoel did not reveal who would be the first to cross the finish line and take the leader's jersey if Quick-Step Alphavinil were to win. But he was more than willing to settle one of the questions asked as the headline of an article in Het Nieuwsblad on Thursday, "Eight riders, 40,320 combinations, and various pitfalls: who will steer the "fast train" Evenpoel in the team time trial?" Was.

"Behind me is my friend Alaphilippe, who is sitting across from me right now," said Evenpoel, to which Alaphilippe jokingly replied, "Pray for me," and added, "My problem is that I get a lot of mosquitoes on my windshield, because Remco is so aero." He added.

On a more serious note, Evenpoel added, "I've been working with Julian for a while now. Julien is behind me and he is a strong time triallist. We all know what to do."

However, not everything is going perfectly in the Quick Step Alphavinil Vuelta camp, with sport director Klaas Rodevik heading home early on COVID-19. And there is a learning curve to follow, at least from Evenpoel's perspective, even for a team as established as Quick-Step Alphavinir. At a press conference, the young Belgian called on the team to follow the example of Roglic, as well as Jumbo Visma and Ineos Grenadier, as examples of Grand Tour strategy.

"It is a compliment to hear Logrich and such talent talk about our team," Evenepoel assured. But if Evenpoel's plans to compete in the Vuelta come to fruition this September, the Slovenian will not be the only one discussing the Grand Tour win, which would be a major step forward for the Belgian.