Remco Evenepoel has his first victory within the Tour de France. The world champion time trial lived as much as his function as favorite within the first time trial and beat yellow jersey wearer Tadej Pogacar by twelve seconds. Within the rankings, Evenepoel retained his second place, however closed it to inside 33 seconds of the Slovenian.
It was greater than clear that the Aerokogel Van Schepdaal was the person to beat in and round Gevrey-Chambertin. Yellow jersey wearer Pogacar additionally noticed the small Fleming, who stood head and shoulders above him, as the most important contender for the stage win. Within the Chief’s jersey, the day earlier than the time trial, he spoke to the Dutch coach of Evenepoel, Koen Pelgrim. He additionally had a whole lot of confidence within the time trial efficiency of his protégé. ‘We hope to have the ability to take the stage win in fact. That’s the aim. You then would robotically additionally acquire time on the rivals’, Pelgrim thought of.
Tour de France has already been a hit for Evenepoel, who can dream of rather more
And evenepoel did acquire time! He was at least twelve seconds sooner than the Slovenian, on Primoz Roglic and Jonas Vingegaard the ex-footballer even gained 34 and 37 seconds respectively. ‘It is loopy’, Evenepoel began within the flash interview. ‘I had day. The climb was troublesome although. I needed to go away shortly, however I had to avoid wasting for that treacherous climb. The descent was additionally fairly technical and on the restrict. I loved each meter of this time trial. To win in the long run is simply insane. I am tremendous pleased’, the chief of Soudal Fast-Step cheered.
Within the final half it appeared to go fallacious. Evenepoel was apparently struggling together with his chain, however based on the rider himself it was one thing else. ‘I believed I had a flat tire. Not less than that is the way it sounded. After a couple of hundred meters, nonetheless, there was nothing fallacious anymore. Nonetheless, I used to be a bit scared, as a result of it is also a flat tire (tyre that slowly deflates, ed.). I did not take the final corners with a lot confidence. Nonetheless, I needed to take dangers. In any case, Tadej was on my heels. Ultimately, a distinction of twelve seconds is nice. Tadej may also win extremely troublesome time trials. All in all, I simply needed to win right here. Mission achieved. I am very proud.’
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Evenepoel was congratulated by Pogacar afterwards
Evenepoel additionally did an amazing job within the classification. He gained time on Pogacar and gained much more time on Roglic and Vingegaard. ‘We weren’t a lot involved with the variations within the classification’, Evenepoel indicated. ‘We primarily needed to win a stage and we succeeded now. In brief, it is an amazing day for the workforce and for myself. Now I am specializing in Saturday (hill stage, ed.) and Sunday (gravel stage, ed.)’ Evenepoel definitely is not fascinated about a battle with Pogacar for the ultimate victory. ‘He is just about out of attain. Even in a time trial like this you see how extremely good he’s. However we’ll see. In any case, you by no means know with races. The additional into the race and the higher I really feel, I am going to focus extra on the rostrum. I’ve the legs for it.’
Evenepoel expects hectic, however no main variations in gravel stage
On the press convention afterwards, which In de Leiderstrui was additionally current at, we nonetheless noticed a really pleased Evenepoel. Logically, you probably have accomplished one other greater than respectable time trial. There too, the mechanical failure that turned out to not be mechanical failure was in fact mentioned. ‘To be sincere, I believed I used to be going to lose the time trial there. It was an terrible sound, that actually sounded precisely like a flat tire. I believed: this was it for me. Nonetheless, after 2 hundred meters I nonetheless wasn’t driving on the rim and I noticed that it was nothing. Possibly it was simply somebody on the facet who dropped a glass or one thing. It was a second of distraction that usually by no means occurs to me. I used to be clearly in a little bit of shock. It threw me off my rhythm a bit and price me possibly three or 4 seconds. Nothing extra.’
Evenepoel additionally shed some mild on Sunday’s much-discussed gravel stage. ‘It will likely be a troublesome stage. Something however simple. Additionally it is in a area the place it isn’t flat in any respect and subsequently continuously up and down. The primary phases of Paris-Good are sometimes held there. And they’re usually troublesome. I do not assume you may win the Tour there, however you may lose it, most likely on account of unhealthy luck or one thing else unlucky. It may all be over at one level, offered you may have unhealthy luck in your facet. The gravel sections themselves will not be that harmful. In comparison with Strade Bianche, for instance, it isn’t that unhealthy. Being nicely positioned always would be the motto, particularly since we’ll already be fairly drained in our legs after eight days. It will likely be a phenomenal stage, however I do not anticipate any variations between the GC contenders.’
Youri van den Berg (Twitter: @YourivndnBerg)
