SerpApi.Org
Remco Evenepoel won his second consecutive stage at the Tour de France on Tuesday in Thonon-les-Bains. That naturally brought a smile to the face of the Belgian rider from Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe, whose team had also suffered a major setback with the withdrawal of Florian Lipowitz. Evenepoel—as honest as ever—gave his account of the day’s events at the press conference as the stage winner.
Question number one from the press room at Lake Geneva: Is he now the man who’s making cycling more exciting, since he’s beaten Pogacar twice in a row? “That’s a tough question to answer. Personally, to be honest, I don’t see it as boring at all—on the contrary, what he’s showing is incredibly impressive. I look up to him and try to learn from him so that I, too, can eventually reach that level—though that’s absolutely not easy, neither in training nor in the race.'
"He's an absolute superstar and the greatest rider of all time, so I don't think we should label it as boring. I do understand that to TV viewers, it sometimes seems that way when he attacks whenever he wants, but for us as riders, it remains a huge challenge,” Evenepoel aptly describes from a competitor’s perspective.
"It's a great honor to be able to race against such a champion. We may well be standing face to face with cycling history here. He could be going for his fifth Tour de France, which would tie the record. I don't think you could possibly call that boring," Evenepoel concludes his account.
Read more below the photo!
Evenepoel remains realistic even after two stage wins
After his two stage wins, Evenepoel isn’t quite dreaming of the yellow jersey in Paris just yet. The podium remains his goal. “Of course, I have to keep an eye on everyone. Tadej is in a league of his own, but behind him, it’s wide open. I don’t know the exact time gaps off the top of my head right now, but my focus is entirely on defending my second-place position. I’m going to do everything I can to hold onto that position all the way to Paris. That’s my main goal for this Tour.”
He won’t be able to use the two-leader strategy starting Wednesday, as Lipowitz left the race in an ambulance after a hard crash during the time trial. “During my ride and right after the finish, I obviously wasn’t aware of what had happened yet. I was waiting for my results and Tadej’s. It wasn’t until it became clear that I had won that the guys at the finish line told me that ‘Lipo’ had crashed and was out of the race.”
"First and foremost, this is incredibly sad for him. Just like Jonas, he’s made enormous sacrifices for this. We did an altitude training camp together in the Sierra Nevada; he rode the Tour of Slovenia and did a second training camp as well. So when you crash out in one stupid turn and probably break something, that’s just incredibly frustrating,” said Evenepoel.
"It’s a huge blow for us as a team, too. Lipo is one of the best climbers in the world, and we’re going to miss him terribly in the stages to come. It’s a real shame, because he was riding a rock-solid Tour. Both I personally and the entire team are going to miss him terribly. For now, the most important thing is that he recovers well and stays healthy. You wouldn’t wish this on anyone, and certainly not on your own teammate.”
Read more below the photo!
Evenepoel: 'You had to stay focused the whole time'
Back to the time trial from Evian to Thonon, which could be roughly divided into two sections. “The climb itself was one thing, but it was followed by a plateau of one and a half kilometers where the road went slightly uphill and downhill, with quite a bit of crosswind. You had to keep riding at full speed there, too, because nothing is handed to you on a silver platter,” Evenepoel noted.
"Once we started the descent, we had to deal with some pretty strong gusts of wind, which varied between open areas and among the trees. When you reach the top after a climb like that, pushing yourself to the limit, you have to try to recover as quickly as possible so you can tackle that technical descent with focus. That was definitely not easy,” he continued.
"I tried to stay calm, listen carefully to Klaas’s (Lodewyck, ed.) coaching over the radio, and rely on my riding skills without pushing too hard. After all, there were still some flatter kilometers ahead, so I wanted to use the descent to recover a bit without taking any unnecessary risks."
"With about 9.5 kilometers to go, I had to clear my mind and give it my all until the finish. I still had to be careful in the turns, though; to be honest, I found the last 5 kilometers more treacherous than the descent itself," he says, referring to the spot where Lipowitz fell. “They were 90-degree turns with wide road markings on fairly slippery asphalt. It was a beautiful time trial, but one where you had to stay focused the whole time.”
