They actually sent him to the UAE tour his 2nd month after turning pro. He finished the first MTF on Jebel Hafeet a few seconds behind Dumoulin, ahead of Costa, Schachmann, Nibali, Sivakov, and within 1 minute of winner Valverde. Either you are overestimating the UAE, or you are underestimating Evenepoel. Also nobody would expect him to outright dominate those races against Landa, Yates, Majka, Carapaz, Bennett, Kuss, Fuglsang, Lopez etc. Sending him directly to the big races would have people here claim they were insane to send him there so soon, that they should have protected him better and keep him in the small races.