Evenepoel angry at Declercq after TTT Paris-Nice: "He may be a former teammate, but you don't do that!"

Declercq dropped back from Lidl-Trek - which started the time trial before Soudal Quick-Step - but according to Evenepoel, he didn't do it quite right. "He stayed in front of us in a technical turn and didn’t move aside. A big thank you to him. That was really nasty. Tim may well have been a former teammate, but you don't do that. Did he do it on purpose? I hope not, but it's possible," Evenepoel commented to Sporza.

The rain also didn’t play to the Belgian team's advantage. "We had a twenty-second lead over UAE at the intermediate point, and you can hardly lose time in the downhill section. But it's simple: the rain fell and the wind shifted. There are some technical turns in the last kilometers. If you can take those at full speed, it saves you about four to five seconds per turn. Luck was not on our side. Seeing that we outclassed everyone in the first part of the time trial proves that our team is super good," he concluded.

Coach Koen Pelgrim was a little more cautious in his assessment. "Rain never works in your favor. You inevitably lose time in the corners, but not the amount of seconds we now lost to the winning team UAE. So, we can't solely blame the weather. I haven't been able to closely examine the data from the riders yet, so I can't draw any firm conclusions," said the Dutchman.