Remco Evenepoel is in Calpe, Spain, participating in Sourdal-Quick Step's first group training camp for the new season.

Evenepoel, who announced his participation in the Giro d'Italia last week in a social media post from the Amalfi Coast near Naples, revealed that he used his time in Italy to scout the time trial to Cesena on stage 9 and other early stages in southern Italy

The 2023 Giro d'Italia will open with an 18.4km individual time trial to Ortona and conclude the opening week with a 30.7km stage to Cesena. On the final day, a time trial will be held in Monte Russari for a total of 67.7 km.

"I'm really looking forward to the opening time trial and stage 9," Evenpoel said during a Q&A session on Instagram on Monday.

"The latter was scouted last week. This Giro has a beautiful time trial which is perfect for me. I want to get a good result. There is a super tough but beautiful mountain stage in the Dolomites in the last week. I am looking forward to it. It will be a special final week."

Evenpoel hopes to repeat his success at this year's Vuelta a España. In that event, he made a strong start to take the red jersey and extended his lead with a dominant win in the time trial to Alicante midway through the race.

After Monte Bondone, Zordo Alto, and Tre cime di Lavaredo, the mountain time trial will take place on the Slovenian border on the final weekend.

Evenpoel has yet to outline the rest of his 2023 race program, but Het Laatste Nieuws recently reported that he will return to the Vuelta a San Juan in January. He won the last edition in 2020, and his opponents this time around include Filippo Ganna and Egan Bernal.

However, the world champion admitted that he will be looking to defend his rainbow jersey in Glasgow in 2023.17]

"Apparently, the world championships are quite difficult. I want to come to Glasgow in good conditions," Evenpoel said, dismissing the idea that he might add a cyclocross race sometime in the winter. [But] it's not a big goal and I don't think I'll have the opportunity to grow as a rider. The big dream I'm focused on right now is to win three Grand Tours."