'Remco said straight away there were 40 of them' — what exactly happened at the start of Liège?

Remco Evenepoel in the early break? Those trying to follow Liège-Bastogne-Liège before the live broadcast began on Sunday morning were understandably confused. The Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe rider ultimately finished in third, with the mood at the team bus decidedly positive.

"It's difficult to explain what happened in the opening phase of the race," Evenepoel said as he entered the press room in Liège. "I always try to be at the front at the start of Liège-Bastogne-Liège, because I know it can be very difficult leaving the city."

"That's why I was in the front group," he explained. "We were away — but that wasn't the intention. It was just a mistake. We built up a lead quickly and by then it was too late to drop back, so I tried not to waste too much energy."

The team car had initially underestimated the size of the move. "We thought around twenty riders had gone," said DS Klaas Lodewyck. "But Remco immediately told us there were forty. Nico Denz was with us in the group, and nobody was riding in the peloton — so we decided to sit tight and assess the situation. Every team was represented, except Decathlon."

"Remco didn't need to do too much, so we waited it out," Lodewyck added. Evenepoel agreed. "The cooperation wasn't great, so I don't think the escape really worked in my favour. All in all, it was a very, very strange situation. I don't think it affected me in the finale — but we still need to look at the data with the coaches."

Pogačar's perspective from the other side confirmed just how the peloton handled it. "After 20 minutes we realised it wasn't so bad to let them go, because with such big groups cooperation is never great — although I was a little afraid Remco might escape and ride alone," the world champion explained. "We kept things under control thanks to Vegard and Rune. Decathlon helped later too. Normally you don't just let Remco ride — but this time the situation was different."

What was certain was that Evenepoel couldn't match Pogačar and Seixas in the finale. "I was in a good position going into the Redoute, between sixth and tenth. We started the climb at a very high tempo, and I knew that if I tried to follow Pogačar and Seixas I'd quickly hit my limit — so I decided to focus on myself."

Switching mentally to racing for third didn't take long. "It wasn't an immediate gear change, because we were still racing for a podium place. So I focused on not letting a large group escape and then riding a strong sprint to get on the podium. With the legs I had today, this was the best possible result," he said with honesty.

Lodewyck shared that view. "The way they rode away was very impressive — they had a gap immediately. We still had Jai [Hindley] there, and we decided to ride for third. Mattias Skjelmose launched an impressive attack, but we were able to control it."

"We have to accept third place — it was the maximum available to us. It would be going too far to suggest we'd have been in contention if we hadn't been in that big group," Lodewyck concluded as the Classics season drew to a close. "All in all we're very happy with our spring: third in the Tour of Flanders, the win at Amstel, and third here in Liège."