'I was angry and rightly so'; Remco Evenepoel lashes out at co-leader Florian Lipowitz after first Tour de France mountain stage

Remco Evenepoel finished a strong fourth on Thursday in the first mountain stage of the Tour de France, but it was still a frustrating day for the Belgian from Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe. In the chasing group behind Tadej Pogačar and Jonas Vingegaard, there was little cohesion, and he certainly did not get much help from teammate Florian Lipowitz.

Evenepoel was beaten by Isaac Del Toro in the sprint for third place and was too heated to speak immediately after the finish. A little later, he did speak to Sporza. “I had asked for a lead-out, and I didn’t get one,” he snapped in Lipowitz’s direction.

“Yes, I was angry, and rightly so. In the Tour of Catalonia, I rode on the front for him for 30 kilometers. I asked him to ride on the front for one kilometer, and that wasn’t possible. That made me angry, and it will have to be properly discussed tonight,” Evenepoel said.

On the climbs, the Belgian was able to hold his own well. “It was pretty OK. I did what I could do. In any case, I wasn’t planning to go completely into the red at the end of the Tourmalet, because there was still a long descent to come. UAE went extremely hard. We were already riding pretty fast ourselves, but they went extremely fast.”

“I knew that with my descending skills, I would still be able to get back to the group ahead of me,” Evenepoel said, referring to Del Toro, Seixas and Lipowitz, who were riding in front of him at that point. “I was 15 to 20 seconds behind. So I had to do it, but I know that climb and that descent pretty well. And I know I can descend well.”

“The plan was to go à bloc with calculated risks. But in the end, my tactic was: not go completely over the limit uphill and then go down fast,” Evenepoel explained. He could not fully capitalize on that approach because of the poor cooperation on the final drag toward the finish.

“I understand that Del Toro and Sepp Kuss don’t ride, but Lidl-Trek were there with two riders and they didn’t want to ride straight away. I thought: what do you have to lose? If we work together, maybe we can still get to Jonas,” he said, referring to Mattias Skjelmose and Juan Ayuso.

In Paul Seixas, Evenepoel at least found an ally, as could also be seen in a brief exchange between the two. “Was there something between us? No, I hadn’t understood him. He also said he didn’t understand why some riders were sitting on and not contributing. I told him: this is the Tour, and it won’t be the last time,” Evenepoel sighed. Even so, the Belgian remained defiant. “There is still a lot possible, but Jonas is in good shape too. We must not forget that.”

Author: David Bavin-Hobbs - [email protected]