Evenepoel at peace with third place at Liège: 'I felt immediately that I wouldn't play a significant role'

Remco Evenepoel was unable to win Liège-Bastogne-Liège for a third time on Sunday. The Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe rider had found himself in the early break as the only top favourite — but on the Côte de la Redoute, he couldn't hold the wheels of eventual winner Tadej Pogačar and Paul Seixas. A sharp sprint, however, secured him a podium place.

The 2026 edition of La Doyenne was raced at a record average speed, driven largely by the frantic opening phase in which a group of more than 50 riders escaped. Evenepoel was among them. What exactly happened? "No idea," he told Sporza.

"I was just at the front at the start and the pace was pretty high," he continued. "Suddenly there were 40 or 50 riders up the road. It surprised me too — I didn't really notice it happening."

His presence in the front group made things awkward for some of the others. "It was probably a problem for a lot of riders that I was there, because it reduced their chances. But someone can always ride away from a group like that. That didn't happen, so it was a strange part of the race."

Evenepoel is adamant the early move had no real bearing on his final result. "In the end, I didn't really waste a lot of energy. The riders behind maybe had to work harder to come back. It changed nothing about my result — I was still able to fight for a podium place."

Even before Pogačar attacked on the Redoute, Evenepoel could feel in his legs what was coming. "They just went really hard. I felt immediately that if another attack came, I wouldn't play a significant role. The positioning was good — that wasn't the problem this year. I just had tired legs at that moment."

He adapted quickly, refocusing his goal from the win to the podium. A razor-sharp sprint sealed third convincingly. "It took a moment to switch mentally," he said. "But I still had Jai Hindley with me as a teammate, so I could keep a few cards up my sleeve."