Remco Evenepoel crashed hard in the third stage of the Tour of Catalonia. The Belgian was up the road with Jonas Vingegaard in a stage defined by the wind. Evenepoel crashed just before a roundabout, causing both riders to sit up, albeit in different ways! New footage of Evenpoel's nasty crash has recently emerged, casting doubt on the Belgian's theory.
ADVERTISEMENT
The Spanish race finished at the end of March, won convincingly by Vingegaard. Although Evenepoel finished fifth in the overall classification, cycling fans had expected more from the Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe powerhouse.
On day three, however, Evenepoel went down hard, supposedly due to a hole in the road. 'I wanted to get into the drops for the sprint, but at that moment I rode into a big hole. I didn't see it, and it wasn't clearly visible on the road. Because of that I went over my handlebars,' he said, after the stage.
ADVERTISEMENT
Continue reading below the photo
Evenepoel was pretty battered after his crash in Catalonia
Social media doubts hole in road in Evenepoel crash
ADVERTISEMENT
In the end, Evenepoel was fit enough to continue, although in the final days in Catalonia he mainly rode in service of teammate Florian Lipowitz. A week after the Spanish stage race, Evenepoel proved to be fully back on track, by finishing third on his debut in the Tour of Flanders.
Shortly after the Flemish classic, footage of the spectacular crash in Catalonia surfaced on social media. The camera phone footage shows Evenepoel at the front, suddenly on just his front wheel and ultimately catapulted over the roundabout.
Naturally, followers immediately jumped on the question: where exactly is the hole in the road?
'It looks like Remco grabs his front brake, sending him over his handlebars,' was one conclusion. We will leave others to speculate. But it pays to remember that somebody somewhere always has a phone ready to capture the moment.
Bram van der Ploeg (35) is the proud founder of In de Leiderstrui, IDL Pro Cycling's parent site, launched in 2018. Finally, he could create stories about the sport he had followed since childhood. He is the editor-in-chief on paper, but prefers to be with his recorder next to a rider, a team bus, or in the mud at a cyclocross race. Every year, from February to the end of May, Bram follows the entire Italian cycling season, from the Trofeo Laigueglia to the Giro d'Italia, with the grand finale in October in Lombardy. During that time, he lives in Tuscany, where he has since come to call Italy his 'home'.