SerpApi.Org
Remco Evenepoel won Tuesday’s time trial in the Tour de France in convincing fashion, proving once again that the seemingly unbeatable Tadej Pogacar can, in fact, be beaten. The Slovenian rider from UAE Team Emirates-XRG admitted he was somewhat disappointed, but was also relieved that he managed to stay upright in the same turn where Florian Lipowitz crashed.
"It was a good day," was the first thing Pogacar said in his flash interview. But he also added, "I'm a little disappointed." That was mainly based on the split times. “At the top of the climb, I was 15 seconds behind Remco. Then I thought: I’m not taking any more risks until the finish,” the yellow jersey wearer said, conducting a risk assessment after all.
Not everyone emerged unscathed from the time trial. In fact, Lipowitz took a hard fall in a fast right-hand turn, which ultimately meant the end of the race for the German rider from Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe. Not long after, we saw Pogacar nearly go down in that same turn as well, but the Slovenian managed to stay upright.
Afterward, he did come back to that point. “Then there was the turn where Lipo (Florian Lipowitz, ed.) crashed. During the reconnaissance run, there were some of the organization’s cars parked there, so I couldn’t see the turn the way I wanted to. I almost crashed there, too,” Pogacar realized he had narrowly avoided a crash.
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Pogacar congratulates Evenepoel
The athletic UAE star also had words of support for his German rival. “I hope Lipo is okay and that he’ll recover quickly. It’s sad to see another rider drop out of the general classification,” he said, noting that, of course, another top-five rider had dropped out of the Tour on Sunday following Jonas Vingegaard.
"A good day," then, as Pogacar himself said, but still with that slight disappointment. In the end, the Slovenian had to settle for second place behind the world time trial champion. “Of course I wanted to go for the win, but Remco is an Olympic and world time trial champion. Hats off to him. It was a brilliant time trial on his part.”
However, Pogacar isn't immediately worried about the general classification, where Evenepoel is now within four and a half minutes. "It's not over yet. We still have quite a week to go. The lead is good, but you never know what might happen. Let’s go. We’re feeling very confident and in high spirits heading into the weekend, so we’ll see what happens there.”
