De Cauwer offers advice to Evenepoel after frustrated gestures: "Look at riders like Pogacar and van der Poel"

“We saw that it wasn't going well, but we didn't expect it to be this bad. That blow in the final stages of the climbing time trial by Jonas Vingegaard was painful. But that can't have been the reason,” said De Cauwer. “I think it's a combination of circumstances, topped off with a sauce of disappointment. ‘What am I doing here?’”

“He won a stage. But you would have expected him to be better compared to last year, when he finished third,” the cycling commentator continued. “Not in terms of ranking, but he should have been able to keep up with the real climbers. And we didn't see any of that here.”

De Cauwer believes that Evenepoel can also learn from this chapter of the Tour. “That you have to put a lot of things into perspective in life. Not saying things like I don't have to do anything. However, you must learn to cope with certain things. That's very important.”

"It's an art to deal with cycling," he says. "You can do a lot and sacrifice a lot. But you also have to ask yourself: does that teach me anything? Does it make me better? Does it make me feel better about myself? He should be a bit more relaxed. He needs to let go of that tension and nervousness."

"Those gestures at the end towards the cameraman, for example. You know that's part of it. It's only logical that he's being filmed there, given his status. Actually, he shouldn't respond to that. He should know that. He needs to enjoy the race more. That goes for the whole peloton."

"Look at riders like Pogacar and van der Poel, how they look at the race. You might say, 'That's easy, they're absolute top riders.' Those guys also give it their all, but they try to keep it playful. That's mainly the job of the management and the team," advises De Cauwer.