Remco Evenepoel pulls off another near-impossible feat, despite a run-in with a Tour de France race car

Remco Evenepoel proved once again in Stage 14 of the Tour de France that he should never be counted out. The 26-year-old Belgian from Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe was the first among the big names in the general classification to break away on the climb to Le Markstein, but fell back after the summit. And that was after he lost valuable time on the climb due to a Shimano race car.

"Wet, cold, but everything turned out fine in the end. I finished fifth and Florian (Lipowitz, ed.) seventh, and we didn’t lose much time to the other riders on the podium," Evenepoel said in a short video released by the team. "I’m happy with that, after a tough day. "I’ll need some rest at the hotel, with some soccer tonight at 11:00 p.m. during the World Cup."

Evenepoel has shown himself to be a big fan of the World Cup throughout the Tour de France, so on Saturday evening he’ll be tuning in to watch the match between France and England for third place. On Sunday evening, Evenepoel will have plenty of time to watch the final between Argentina and Spain as well, since Monday is a rest day.

In addition to the video, Evenepoel also spoke briefly with the Belgian media by the team bus. He said: “It went pretty well, though I have to say I really struggled in the rain. I was cold, and on the final climb, the pace was just a bit too fast for me. In the end, I still maintained a good pace and rode a strong final one and a half kilometers.”

Still, according to the Belgian, he could have done even better and faster. “I was a bit boxed in between Shimano’s car and one of the race organizers’ cars. That did slow me down a bit, but I didn’t lose all that much time. Eventually, I caught up with Florian, and I immediately called out that we needed to work together toward the finish. That worked out well, helping us minimize our losses.”

Minimizing losses is something Evenepoel has had to do on a few other days as well. And thanks to his aerodynamics and tremendous speed on the flats and on descents, he’s often managed to do that exceptionally well. In Stage 14 as well, he managed to close the gap from 30 seconds behind Jonas Vingegaard to just 4 seconds behind the Dane from Visma | Lease a Bike.

"With a stage like today's, under these special weather conditions, we held our own well," he said. The fact that he had to drop back a few times on the climbs and that Stage 15 will finish with a climb doesn't worry Evenepoel. "I think the final climb should suit me; I’ve done it a few times during training."