"Don't kill me if I don't win," Remco Evenpoel joked at one point on Friday evening, but the world champion, who opens his season this weekend at the Vuelta a San Juan, is as promising as ever.

When Evenpoel, a recent junior graduate, made his pro debut at this race in 2019, the young phenomenon was already the center of attention and forced to grow up in the public eye. Twelve months later, after breaking into the overall championship, Evenpoel was hailed as the "Messi of the cycling world" by the local press, and no honorific seemed extreme.

In the three years since his last Vuelta a San Juan, Evenepoel's life has changed dramatically, but even with a world title, the Vuelta a España, and Liege-Bastogne-Liege under his belt, the basic premise of his career has not. Frequent victories and big wins do not satisfy his need for more.

"I'm three years older. Maybe that's the biggest difference, but there have been a lot of wins, a lot of emotions, a lot of bad crashes that happened in between," Evenpole said. I think all these things changed me, made me a new rider and a new person."

Evenpoel moved from Belgium to Calpe to escape the pressures of stardom in his home country and left for Argentina about two weeks before this race.

Of course, one always finds one's burdens again, and on Friday evening at the Del Bono Hotel stage in San Juan, Evenpoel held a press conference with the local and international press, making fun of the race organization for removing the time trial that had led to his overall win in 2020. and tried to dampen expectations.

"Of course it would be better to have a time trial, but we will deal with what we have," Evenpoel said. 'There are a few other chances to win, but if they want me back next year, they should do the TT, and I'm looking at the organization to bring the TT back.'

In Soudal-Quick Step's Friday morning training session, it appeared that Evenpoel would be the last four to sprint for the win before Yves Lampère and Mikhail Molkov led Fabio Jacobsen to the finish. Evenpoel suggested that leading Jacobsen to victory was the team's primary concern.

"First and foremost, we're going for a stage win for Fabio Jacobsen. He's the fastest guy on the bike, so I think he has a lot of chances," Evenpoel said. 'Then I'll try to get a good result in Alto Colorado [stage 5].'

Argentina's Colombian contingent also includes Egan Bernal (Ineos). He marks one year this week since his life-threatening training accident. This will be the first meeting between Evenpoel and Bernal since they competed in the early stages of the 2021 Giro d'Italia, and the Belgian was impressed with his rival's training data on Strava.

"I think we will see Bernal again in 2019. Hopefully he will reach the top level again in the Grand Tours," said Evenpoel, whose rivals include Daniel Martinez (Ineos), Sergio Iguita (Bora-Hansgrohe), and Miguel Angel Lopez (Medellin-EPM). I'm here to compare myself with these three in order to do well as defending champion."

The race should ultimately come down to a summit finish in Alto Colorado on stage 5, although there could be a choice to be made until Valreal on stage 4, and strong winds in San Juan could create a pit stop.

The climb itself is longer rather than steeper, but the 2,624-meter elevation and exposed road brings its own problems, as Evenpoel discovered when he was temporarily caught in an echelon there in 2020. 'I wasn't awake that day, and I thought the wind wasn't strong, but it was. I wasn't awake that day. I was not awake that day," Evenpoel said.

Three years ago at this time, Evenpoel was starting in San Juan for his Giro d'Italia debut, but a coronavirus outbreak disrupted his calendar and he crashed in the subsequent Il Lombardia, forcing him to miss the rescheduled race.

The Giro was, of course, the centerpiece of Evenpoel's 2023 campaign, and when he saw the impressive Vuelta a San Juan winner's trophy on Friday evening, he couldn't help but think of Corsa Rosa. "It looks a lot like the Giro winner's trophy," he said."

"It would be nice to have two of the same one at home," Evenpoel said.