It has been three years since Remco Evenpoel‘s first expertise of gravel racing at a Grand Tour – stage 11 on the Giro d’Italia, the place he struggled on the Tuscan sterrato, dropping two minutes to eventual race winner Egan Bernal in Montalcino.
The information that this yr’s Tour de France – his first – would additionally embrace gravel roads within the parcours was, when the race route was introduced again in October, met with a unfavorable response from the Belgian as he mentioned, “I do not suppose it is necessary.”
His Soudal-QuickStep crew boss, Patrick Lefevere, has additionally signalled his displeasure with the development on a number of events. Heading into the Tour de France’s ninth stage on Sunday, routed over the filth roads round Troyes, it appears as if one of many males has modified his tune.
“Looking forward to that stage, I am trying ahead to it, however I am additionally a bit nervous,” Evenepoel informed the Belgian media after stage 8 in Colombey-Les-Deux-Eglises. “I am unable to wait to find these gravel roads, and on the identical time, I do know that something can occur. All the GC riders need to watch out to not lose time.
“I do know all of the sectors,” he added. “I’ve explored probably the most troublesome ones, and, to be trustworthy, I am a fan of them. We’ll see the way it seems. It can rely upon the main group and on whether or not there are actually robust riders up entrance, or not.
“In any case, I’ve the impression that tomorrow’s stage might be some of the watched sporting occasions of the yr.”
Lefevere, chatting with Cyclingnews on the morning of stage 8, within the rain-hit village of Semur-en-Auxois, remained steadfastly towards the thought of gravel in Grand Excursions.
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“I am anti. I am not in favour and I do not suppose it belongs within the Tour de France,” he mentioned. “To start with, I used to be towards Strade Bianche, however I modified my thoughts – solely idiots by no means change their minds. It is OK there, however it does not belong in a stage race.
“I am not Madame Soleil [French astrologer], I informed you already,” he added when requested for a prediction on what would possibly unfold on the 199km stage. “There might be two races within the race, one to win the stage and one to not lose time for the GC guys. We’ll trip to guard Remco as a lot as doable. The others haven’t any private ambitions. We’ll see. The day will inform us.”
Writing in his weekly opinion column for Het Nieuwsblad, Lefevere regarded again to a contemporary traditional version of the Giro d’Italia, received by Ivan Basso after a gradual fightback towards breakaway chief David Arroyo.
The race’s epic seventh stage, run in moist circumstances throughout that well-known sterrato to Montalcino, noticed Cadel Evans seize the maglia rosa, producing a memorable picture within the race’s current historical past. Fourteen years on, Lefevere stays unimpressed, utilizing the instance for instance his displeasure with the idea.
“A picture of Cadel Evans within the 2010 Giro is burned into my retina,” he wrote. “He received the gravel stage then however crossed the end line with a caked-on gravel mess overlaying his total face. Is that how we wish to see riders?”
It is a query to which many followers would swiftly reply ‘sure’, even when the Tour de France peloton might be hoping that the current forecast for dry climate is borne out.
Evenepoel and the opposite 172 males who completed stage 8 battled by means of completely different circumstances on Saturday as rain hit the Tour on the finish of a heat and dry opening week. As sprinters Biniam Girmay, Jasper Philipsen, and Arnaud De Lie battled for the stage win on the rising end, he discovered himself ending up in tenth alongside Fred Wright and Alex Aranburu.
It was an unfamiliar place for Evenepoel to search out himself in throughout a mass dash end, a scenario that happened totally by chance, he mentioned.
“In the long run, it was a fairly good day, though the beginning was a bit difficult because of the results from yesterday’s time trial,” Evenepoel mentioned. “However I used to be effectively surrounded by my teammates and I used to be capable of spend a lot of the stage on the entrance of the peloton.
“Within the final kilometre uphill, I wished to ensure I would not lose time in a silly means. So, I stayed on the entrance and completed tenth, however that was extra by chance. I did not do it on goal.”
