'I ended up feeling empty' Kévin Vauquelin crashes out of the Basque Country GC

Kévin Vauquelin impressed in the opening time trial of the Tour of the Basque Country, with a second place behind winner Paul Seixas, but dropped completely out of the general classification during the second stage, partly due to a crash. The Frenchman gave an explanation for his off day afterwards to L'Équipe.

During the time trial in Bilbao, the French signing of INEOS Grenadiers came in second, 23 seconds behind his compatriot Seixas. With the explosive course — something that suits him well — Vauquelin looked to be one of the great challengers to the nineteen-year-old talent.

That thought vanished into thin air during the second stage, however. The Frenchman crashed in the approach to the decisive San Miguel de Aralar together with his teammate and compatriot Axel Laurance. While he was able to get back on the bike, Vauquelin was unable to follow the top riders on the slopes of the climb.

After his crash, Vauquelin did make it back to the peloton. 'I started the climb on the wheel of Paul (Seixas, ed.), but I think I pushed myself too hard,' he told the French newspaper. The INEOS Grenadiers team leader did no try to hide behind his crash, however. 'I also didn't know exactly where I stood. I thought I felt good, but I ended up feeling empty.'

The Frenchman had already had the same feeling during the time trial, but managed to mask it. 'I told myself it was nothing, that I just needed to warm up. Maybe it's a nutrition problem from the past few days,' Vauquelin said, guessing. 'At a certain point I felt that something wasn't right. It could be the heat, so I thought: you never know.'

Yet the feeling never went away for the INEOS rider and he had to pay for it with a disappointing result and the end of his GC ambitions. 'I pushed myself too hard to test myself and I didn't recover. After that I lost time, I was just completely empty.'

Vauquelin finally thanked his teammate, who was of enormous help to him on his difficult day. 'Peter Oxenberg really pulled me to the finish. I fought hard, but it's a shame,' he thanked his twenty-year-old teammate. Vauquelin says he will now focus on stage victories, but is extremely disappointed about that. 'I would have preferred to go for the general classification.'