In a battle between two cycling stars, he was supposed to challenge Wout van Aert in the domestic championship, but in the end he did not even reach the podium in the time trial. It was caused by a fall already in the opening kilometers. In the rainy weather, Evenepoel was unable to enter the right-hand turn and flew onto the tarmac.
And what followed was a few meters long drive along the road. Not pleasant at all. The 23-year-old Belgian slid through the wet asphalt like ice and ended up in the bushes along the shoulder. Paradoxically, however, the wet road actually saved his health, because he didn’t get hurt too much and continued the race.
However, he could no longer compete with the best and finished fourth. “Unlucky in the rain today, but that’s also part of cycling,” he then wrote on his Twitter and added congratulations to the winning favorite Van Aert.
This time he praised the feelings of the ride after the lackluster Tour de Suisse. “After a long time I felt like a fish in water. I took a few days off and now I can finally enjoy being back on top of the podium,” smiled the cycling all-rounder, who is preparing for the famous Tour de France.
The two-time overall winner Tadej Pogačar is also in shape for the most famous race. The Slovenian superstar suffered a broken wrist in April’s Liège-Bastogne-Liège race and will ride the Old Lady with a brace. However, the 24-year-old climber erased the question marks over his form by dominating the time trial at the domestic championship.
Long live the boyfriends ❤️
Tadej Pogacar and Urzka Zigart are the national time trial champions 🇸🇮
Pogacar took +5 min from the second and Urzka +1:40 🤯 pic.twitter.com/qcWxvH0s8u
— Rodri (@RodriSabato) June 22, 2023
He crushed all the competition, which lacked the recent Giro winner Primož Roglič, by more than an unprecedented five minutes. This is a truly unprecedented difference on a 15-kilometer route. However, what is even more interesting, on the same track, he improved his time from 2020 by almost a minute and a half, when he then conquered the Tour de France.
On Thursday, at the finish line in Pokljuka, he was also able to share the joy with his friend Urška Žigartová, who was also celebrating the victory in the time trial of the Slovenian women’s championship, where she defended her first place.
2023-06-23 04:53:45
#world #champion #continues #unlucky #covid #skated #asphalt #Sport.cz
