Analysts point to one big mistake by Evenepoel during bike changes: "The outcome could have been different"

After the race, Evenepoel explained to this website why he had to change bikes so often. The Flemish rider felt that his bike was not 100% correct, but after the race, his entourage told IDLProCycling.com that the bike changes were unnecessary. “We checked it three times, but there was nothing wrong,” they said.

According to José de Cauwer, that second bike change should never have happened. “You can't blame an amateur or a rookie for that,” said the co-commentator at Sporza. “I know I'll get some pushback from the Evenepoel camp, but you know there will be riders dropped at that point and that the support car won't be there.”

The former team leader continues his story. “You always have to keep going there, on the Kimihurura! After that, despite everything, we still saw a very good Evenepoel. What if he hadn't lost 42 seconds there by stopping?” De Cauwer wonders aloud. In the end, Evenepoel finishes just over a minute and a half behind the winner, Pogacar.

“With that first change (due to a tilted saddle caused by a pothole, ed.) in the pits, you might lose some confidence, something that is not typical of Evenepoel. He is in great shape,” says De Cauwer, who is once again left with a question after his compatriot's changes. “But somehow he might think: how could this have happened to me?”

Together with commentator Karl Vannieuwkerke, De Cauwer knows that things could have turned out differently if Evenepoel had changed bikes later. “He knew he would have to wait and stand still. He couldn't ride another 5 kilometers, he said, but maybe another 1 or 2 kilometers?” said Vannieuwkerke.

De Cauwer agrees, and as a former team leader, he knows how things work in the support convoy. "Up there, the jury would have let them through anyway. One kilometer further on, the outcome could have been different.’ But that's not how it turned out for Evenepoel and the Belgian team: the Belgian team leader had to chase.

Vannieuwkerke: “I'm also thinking about Ilan Van Wilder's crash. Could he have given up his bike there?” According to De Cauwer, that would have been perfectly possible. “I've been saying all year that Ilan's spare bike is riding along. Let's say we missed out on having Ilan as our second-in-line. But would that have changed anything?”

From the Belgian support car, national coach Serge Pauwels gave his side of the story. ‘We passed Quinten Hermans on the Kimihurura, and he said that Remco needed a new bike again. By then, we were already behind the riders who had been dropped, and, of course, the commissaire didn't let me through immediately. I said that my leader needed a new bike and, after some discussion, I was allowed to pass."

“As we rode on, I was told that he was on the side of the road, so we were almost there. Forty-two seconds is a lot. If he had ridden on a bit longer and then called out, I could have gone straight to the front, and the bike change would have been quicker. But he was lucky that Quinten was there to work for him.” It was a stroke of luck because Evenepoel got support from his own team.

And so Pauwels sees the advantage of Evenepoel's choice in addition to the accumulated deficit. “He had a good mental influence on Remco, who showed resilience by realizing that the race was not over yet. On the one hand, it's bitter that he lost a lot of time, but on the other hand, he wouldn't have had Quinten with him.”

Pauwels did not want to say to Sporza whether Evenepoel made a mistake by stopping cycling so early and waiting for a new bike. "There was no consultation possible. From his perspective, I understand why he made that stop. The positive thing is that he knows how to turn it around and that he shows that he was at least the second best in the race."

At Het Laatste Nieuws, analyst Jan Bakelants shares De Cauwer's opinion: Evenepoel should have kept riding and changed bikes later. But would that have changed the final result? The Belgian doesn't think so. “There was little to be done against the Slovenian. He was simply superior.”

“Remco got too caught up in peripheral issues along the way,” says Bakelants. “Of course, that dropped saddle on the climb will have prevented him from transferring his power to the pedals optimally. But there was no alternative in that particular situation. He had to continue with that bike and try to make the ‘click’.”

The former rider also noticed that Evenepoel dealt with his setback differently. "He usually draws extra strength and energy from things like that and is particularly good at managing setbacks. Now he seemed to throw in the towel too quickly, which caused him to fall far behind."