Remco Evenepoel appeared sceptical when he realized final October that the Tour de France would characteristic a gravel stage within the coronary heart of the Champagne area this yr.
A hesitant show on the gravel roads of the Giro d’Italia on stage 11 in 2021 was maybe at the back of the Belgian’s thoughts when the Tour route was introduced in Paris final Autumn. However Evenepoel just isn’t the sort of rider to permit previous worry to have an effect on his willingness to race.
Three years on and Evenepoel got here alive on the chemins blancs round Troyes, throwing down the gauntlet to Jonas Vingegaard and Tadej Pogačar with an aggressive, all-in show, launching a flurry of assaults trying to pressure a cut up within the yellow jersey group behind stage winner Anthony Turgis.
One week into the Tour and Evenepoel, 33 seconds down on Pogačar, is progressively rising because the Slovenian’s largest challenger for general victory in Good, a standing he seems completely comfortable with on debut.
After amassing a contemporary white jersey as finest younger rider after the stage, Evenepoel mentioned that he had been left dissatisfied with Vingegaard’s show. Whereas the Belgian and Pogačar regarded to mild up the race, Vingegaard and his Visma-Lease a Bike teammates most well-liked to mark assaults and sit on the wheel as a substitute of driving offensively.
“I feel Tadej [Pogačar] and I weren’t proud of this as a result of I feel possibly the rostrum for the Tour may have been determined at the moment already,” Evenepoel advised journalists after being requested for his tackle Vingegaard’s show.
“Now we have to simply accept race ways and race conditions, however typically you additionally want the balls to race. Sadly possibly Jonas didn’t have them at the moment.”
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He added: “I completely settle for the explanation why he didn’t pull, why he didn’t race however in fact Tadej and I each wish to assault fairly far-off from the end and we needed to proceed, however Jonas is typically a bit extra defensive. Now we have to simply accept it, he can have a lot of good causes to race like this so additionally I fully perceive why.
“I used to be by no means in bother, aside from one time on I feel sector eight, the place there was a little bit of a tough scenario simply in entrance of me and I needed to shut a spot however ultimately the whole lot was underneath management. I had good legs and I am pleased it’s a relaxation day tomorrow now.”
Throughout the chaos of the stage, Vingegaard was pressured to alter onto the bike of his teammate, Jan Tratnik, after a mechanical concern which arguably impacted his capacity to race.
“He [Vingegaard] was doing unbelievable for this example,” Visma-Lease a Bike’s Matteo Jorgenson mentioned afterwards. “To have a unique attain, completely different bars, completely different brakes, the whole lot, it was spectacular to see. Additionally, he’s simply so mild that on the gravel, it’s simply actually not fitted to him. However he did a extremely good job and I’m pleased with him. I’m simply glad we received ourselves out of it.”
Regardless of slight hints of frustration, Evenepoel appeared calm and assured as he dissected the stage, explaining that he regarded to reap the benefits of the climate and “heavy legs” when he launched an assault from distance, trying to disrupt the state of play within the yellow jersey group.
He mentioned: “I knew that this was one of many final arduous sectors that we had been going to do on the gravel sectors and I simply needed to go for it, it was a quick cross-tailwind so it made it a really quick sector. If we got here to the entrance group and we had returned all collectively then I feel the race may have been determined there. However like I mentioned, it is a race scenario, race ways and we have now to simply accept that.”
