World champion Remco Evenpoel has strongly suggested that he will not participate in the Tour de France next year and will return to the Giro d'Italia.

In an interview with Het Laatste Nieuws, the Quick-Step Alfa Vinyl leader said that he would prefer not to race in the next Grand Tour with a shared leadership.

Current Belgian national champion Tim Merlier will join the Evenpole team next season, becoming the team's second top sprinter along with Fabio Jacobsen.

After discussing how to divide the Grand Tour and revealing that he prefers to race without other leaders, Evenpohl said, "The Giro is me, the Tour is Jacobsen, and the Vuelta is Merlier."

Evenepoel will not make his Tour de France debut until at least 2024. Nor will he defend his overall title at the Vuelta a España.

Even though the Tour de France is his priority and winning it is his "ultimate dream," Evenpoel said, "I would not rule out a mid-stage in 2023. At the moment, the Giro d'Italia looks great."

The Belgian's first Grand Tour was the 2021 Giro d'Italia, where he rode strongly for the first 10 days but then suffered in the Dolomites, crashed and abandoned.

Rumors of three individual time trials on the Giro route, to be announced next week, will be attractive to Evenpoel.

He also explained that Fabio Jacobsen and Tim Merlier are sharing the leadership responsibilities between them at the Tour and the Vuelta, respectively, which he likes.

"We can actually divide them properly. Otherwise there is a danger of division. That goes for sprinters as well, and sprinters need a strong lead. That makes the combination more difficult.

"Fabio and I are good friends and in a normal race I would love to be part of his sprint train. But in a Grand Tour it's different."

At the end of a spectacularly successful 2022 season that saw him win monuments, world championships, and grand tours, Evenpoel revealed that he had at least one regret.