Evenepoel expects battle on two fronts towards Le Lioran and tips his racing buddy who "will be highly motivated"

White jersey Remco Evenepoel and his Soudal Quick-Step teammates didn't have to exert themselves too much during the tenth stage of the Tour de France, won by Jasper Philipsen. The leader of the youth classification still had enough energy left after the stage to share his thoughts on the upcoming stage.

"It was almost like a second rest day," said a gleaming Evenepoel after the tenth stage towards Saint-Amand-Montrond. "For a moment it was a bit tense due to the risk of echelons caused by the crosswinds, but my team was on point the whole day," he complimented, among others, Yves Lampaert.

"In the end, there was no split in the peloton, and there were no crashes, so we can call it a good day," Evenepoel concluded. In the general classification, he remains 33 seconds behind yellow jersey wearer Tadej Pogacar of UAE-Team Emirates, while Visma | Lease a Bike leader Jonas Vingegaard is 42 seconds behind him.

Evenepoel thinks stage eleven is going to be battle on two fronts

He then turned his attention to the eleventh stage of the Tour towards Le Lioran, which covers a distance of more than two hundred kilometers and includes over four thousand meters of elevation gain. "I think we’re going to see a very exciting battle for the breakaway of the day, as it will be constantly up and down. Our expectation is that it will be a race on two fronts: one for the breakaway and one for the general classification."

He also tipped someone for the stage: local hero Romain Bardet of dsm-firmenich PostNL, who is also a good friend of the Belgian. "I think Romain will be extremely motivated to go for the win, so I hope for him that he can at least secure a spot in the breakaway. Then he can at least do his thing."