Bakelants suggests Evenepoel already regrets his withdrawal: "In that moment, emotion takes over"

Bakelants believes Evenepoel might already be feeling some regret about leaving the race. “When you’re stuck in a negative spiral, you need a turning point to break out of it, a rest day or a couple of easier stages. But when yet another brutal mountain stage comes up, that realization that it’s going to be tough likely started creeping in as early as the morning.”

“You hope you can get over the first climb without issues, but then you immediately feel the legs just aren’t there. And suddenly you find yourself riding next to guys you normally wouldn’t see anywhere near in a race,” said the former rider. “That’s when emotion takes over, and you make a decision you might later regret. You think: This isn’t what I came here for. And that’s why he stepped off.”

Should Evenepoel have just settled into the grupetto and hoped for a better third week? “If he was simply feeling physically off, without an injury or illness, then I would have tried to push him through this tough day,” said Jan Bakelants.

“Of course, that would have meant losing a lot of time, and it would’ve been a real struggle. But there’s still a third week where you can grab something. Normally, you don’t get better in the Tour, but Remco’s engine is so big that with Sunday’s relatively easier stage and the rest day, he could have more or less recovered. That might have led to a win further down the road.”

That Evenepoel wasn’t at his 2024 level is clear to Bakelants. “Last year, the second half of the Dauphiné wasn’t great either. But in the two weeks that followed, Soudal Quick-Step managed to pull off the impossible by helping him lose two kilograms and gain climbing strength.”

“This year, that didn’t work. Why? We’re not at the helm here. And it’s not an exact science,” Bakelants explained. “They probably tried to do the same thing, but for various reasons, like his crash during the winter, that approach just couldn’t be copied one-to-one. The same prep led to two completely different outcomes.”