Evenepoel's teammates crushed Pogacar’s squad but then delivered him perfectly to the launch pad: "Tiesj made the call"
CyclingMonday, 06 October 2025 at 07:47
The European Championships were not a replica of the World Championships, but if you take away Remco Evenepoel's equipment failure in Rwanda, you're pretty close. Tadej Pogacar attacked early, even riding 75 kilometers solo on Sunday, and Evenepoel? He just couldn't keep up in the heat of the battle, but then he kept pace. IDLProCycling.com heard what the Belgian team had to say.
Anyone who watched the European Championships in France among the elite men on Sunday saw a flawless race by Belgium in the first 130 kilometers. Louis Vervaeke moved up into a large leading group, and Evenepoel was kept at the front. The leader had already made some playful attacks, which Pogacar might not have expected.
When we did the combination of Côte de Saint-Romain-de-Lerps and Val d'Enfer three times after 47.5 kilometers, it looked like it was going to happen in the third lap, but Belgium already seized the second big loop for action. “We wanted to isolate Pogacar as quickly as possible, and we succeeded,” explained Vervaeke. National coach Serge Pauwels said, “We weren't afraid of a man-to-man battle.”
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Why did Belgium lead the attack on Pogacar?
That man-to-man battle did happen, but it was a strange sight to see the isolated Pogacar being brought down to the foot of the third Saint Romain de Lerps in the wheel of five Belgians. “I want to discuss that with the guys, because I don't think it was necessary,” Pauwels said firmly, knowing that without earpieces in the race itself, he could do little to direct them.
Tiesj Benoot, as road captain, was therefore designated as the man to make such decisions. “It was a difficult situation, but Tiesj decided to ride fast because we hoped to get as many riders as possible over the climb. We also hoped that Pogacar would only attack on the final circuit because it was more explosive there.”
Now it seemed a bit clumsy, because after Belgium's pace, Pogacar simply rode away from the light blue train. “The pace wasn't high enough to discourage Tadej from attacking. That climb was just fair, a real col,” said Vervaeke, who, to Pauwels' surprise, turned out to be the strongest Belgian in the race after Evenepoel, even after his attack in the early breakaway and work at the front.
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Evenepoel once again fell just short against Pogacar
Any hope that Belgium would still have riders around Evenepoel after the third long climb could be discarded. “Pogacar was also smart enough to see that he was alone and that he knew how things would turn out. He played it smart, also because he is so strong, of course,” said Vervaeke, who briefly thought that Evenepoel could keep up with the world champion.
However, that didn't happen. “If he could have kept up for another minute... But Pogacar was outstanding. It looks simple, but both are incredibly fast, of course. It's a bit like in the days of Eddy Merckx. We tried everything, we had a strong team, but it didn't work out. That's simply because Pogacar is incredibly strong.”
Pauwels also had to admit that none of Belgium's tactics had worked. “Pogacar ended up four minutes ahead of the number three. It probably wouldn't have made much difference what we did on that last long climb. We didn't ride 30 kilometers at the front, but only briefly after that breakaway, towards that long climb.”
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Pogacar with surplus against Evenepoel?
“We hoped that Remco would be able to keep up with Tadej, then we would probably have had a good chance with 70 kilometers to go,” Pauwels continued. But when Evenepoel was forced to do all the work in a chasing group of four, it quickly became a minute. Then I told Remco that he had to ride away as soon as possible."
“The other three chasers (Juan Ayuso, Paul Seixas, and Christian Scaraoni, ed.) could cause a problem. You might as well turn it into a 40-kilometer time trial to maybe make up that minute. But after a race like that, it wasn't possible anymore.” It seemed as if Pogacar was controlling and directing the difference himself. He'll probably ride at the limit, but when I look at it...'
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Latest Comments
- What the data doesn't show is how much of an effect drafting had for evenepoel. Pogacar went with del toro at 100km whilst Evenepoel was still in the bunch. Despite the bike changes he still had a lot of assistance getting back to the bunch. Pogacar then rode 60km solo whilst evenepoel rode with Healy/Skjelmose until going solo in thd last 10-15km. Thats ~20% less power / energy requirements for 45-50km. Apples and oranges...kevpt30-09-2025
- 👏👏Bea24-09-2025
- Agreed! As we all know now, Juan Ayuso will be on another team. But it was sweet to see him win the stages at La Vuelta. I do love the drama of cycling admittedly but its clear to see the talent of winners of stages in a Grand Tourryhw2814fq921-09-2025
- Pogacar has no competition he has won everything, I cant imagine even being him in that position!! Crazy. I am sure he has some back up plan for how he wants to spend his retirement years at age 30 onward. Does he like beer? Plenty of innovation in brewing. And you don't have to be super social. Chapeau/Cheers whatever you like Tadej you will do.ryhw2814fq921-09-2025
- Plus its confirmed that the Philadelphia Cycling Classic up the Manayunk Wall is back for 2026! hooray for thatryhw2814fq918-09-2025
- This is a dumb question but still why doesn't the UCI consider a grand tour in the USA in the future. We have the desolate/scary back roads in Pennsylvania and Virginia, just like in France with loads of rural land and hills. Plus the Rocky Mountains in Colorado and the Cascade/Olympic Mountains in Washington State. I'm sure it'll never happen but honestly people in PA/NJ/NY/VT/NH would love it. We are already sports fans, what is another sport to learn. I am forever optimistic about cycling in the US.ryhw2814fq918-09-2025
- Zonneveld makes some excellent points.The sponsorship model is broken and companies like Verizon who have multi billion dollar with a B ad budgets need to be involved again.
Brucegel17-09-2025 - Roger Vlaeminck says Mads is not a good rider? Where is the headline saying you don't even have to be a good rider to win the World Road Championship says Roger Vlaeminck, who never won it!!? Perhaps his aging mind needs to think about what the heck he's saying.packfiller7103-09-2025
- Wow, there is so much criticism of the UAE XRG riders. Why so much criticism is being leveled solely at the riders is baffling. The UAE XRG management deserves a good amount of the criticism aimed at the team, as a whole. They have not managed the talent they have at all. They failed miserably to properly handle young Isaac del Toro on that penultimate day of the Giro. And they have not handled Juan Ayuso well either. If they didn't have Tadej Pogacar in their roster, we might not be talking about them as winners, at all. So many think that Ayuso has shown that he is not a "team" player at all. Does anybody think that he might be thinking about his own future at this point? That he might want to feel like the team has his back, when they load the pressure onto him? And Joao is not a team leader. That burden might be laid on him by the management, but they need to properly support that assignment, not make it a contentious situation, within the team. And then how management has conducted themselves throughout this parting of ways between themselves and Ayuso has been totally indiscreet. And yet people want to pile onto Ayuso when he tells the truth about the manner that this is all soap opera is developing. He wants out. He shouldn't be getting so much negative criticism for that. It's a situation that has soured. Yes he has a contract, but he is not the first, nor will he be the last that wants to get out of a relationship that just isn't working anymore. And DeCauwer seems to have very vague reasons for criticizing Almeida. He does realize that Jonas is the second best Grand Tour rider of this current generation, so it should be no shame that Joao is behind him in the standings. Riders are giving their all in an extremely difficult sport that stretches them, often beyond their limits. Now many are wanting to send them to Behavioral School as well? The criticism ought to mellow out, or it ought to simply be ignored, as nothing more than blah, blah, blah, not worth the headlines it gets
reemmo002-09-2025 - In 5yrs, Pogi will be a top Twitch streamer living on baked goods while Urska is still racing.Veganpotter11-08-2025
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