Neither star athlete attended the glamorous midweek ceremony in the Belgian town of Cluysen. Evenpoel was too ill to attend, having developed a fever a few days after finishing second in Il Lombardia, the last race of the season.
However, in a pre-competition interview with Het Laatste Nieuws newspaper, which hosted the awards ceremony, Evenpoel said that this season's success gave him a good chance of a third consecutive Kristallen Fietz championship.
“With the two Olympic gold medals, the podium in the Tour, and the stage win I achieved this season, yes, I expected this.
Apologizing for his absence, he added, “I wanted to be with the guys, but I'm just too sick.”
Next week's team get-together will likely provide more clarity on Evenpoel's 2025 race program, but he was eager to return to Paris-Nice and indicated that he had not ruled out a return to the Giro d'Italia.
Regarding Paris-Nice, he said, “I would like to see them do an individual time trial, not a team TT” - as they have done the past two years at the Course aux Soleils - and regarding the Giro, he said, “It all depends on the route. But if I like the Tour de France route, then my mind will be made up very quickly.
The 2025 Tour de France route announcement is scheduled for October 29 for both men and women, with the Giro d'Italia's equivalent event to be held on November 12.
Kopecky was also asked by Het Laatste Nieuws about her future plans, but the 2024 road world champion and Paris-Roubaix winner said, “If I can say one thing about next season, it really can't be better than this year I'm not going to be better than this year. But I will do everything in my power to reach the same level of fitness.”
“It's very hard to pick one moment from this season, but I've been chasing the Paris-Roubaix win for a long time and to win it wearing the beautiful rainbow jersey was the cherry on top.”
With 984 votes, Evenepoel was the clear winner in his category, ahead of second-place finisher Tim Merlier with 530 votes and third-place finisher Yasper Philipsen with 460 votes. The four Kristallen Fietz Award winners are just one vote away from tying the all-time record held by classicist Johan Museeuw. Kopecký, on the other hand, is already the record holder in his category, and his five new awards once again confirm his status as the top Belgian racer of his generation.
In other awards presented at Tuesday night's ceremony, Fleur Moore (Lidl-Trek) and Jarno Widal (Lotto-Dostny Development Team) won their respective Cristallen Fietz Junior categories and this summer's Tour de France Femme Justine Géquière (AG Insurance-Souldal), who won a stage, was named best teammate. Sven Vanthourenhout, who was the coach of the Belgian national team until he stepped down after the Zurich World Championships, also won the award for best sporting director.
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