What happened to Remco Evenepoel in Liège-Bastogne-Liège? "I'm not a robot," states the Olympic champion

Evenepoel spoke honestly and calmly to the press after his unsuccessful race. "I told you not to expect everything from me. I'm not a robot; everyone has had a whole winter, and I've only been able to train for a month and a half. In a race, that shows," said the Belgian, who confirmed that illness certainly did not play a role in his disappointing performance.

It was mainly his lack of training that bothered him. In a race like La Doyenne, that is crucial. "As I said at the beginning, I will take it day by day. I'm going to wait and see how it goes every day. These are very long races: Amstel, Liège... They are six-hour races, and that's something you have to build up in the winter. It's a day-by-day thing. If it's a good day, I have to take advantage of it; if it's a bad day, I have to accept it."

At the foot of La Redoute, Evenepoel was not where he should have been: when Pogacar went, he was in the middle of the pack. "That's right, I already felt it wouldn't be my day. It was a bit of positioning on the legs and strength, too. The race doesn't lie: if you're good, you're upfront. For me, the last hour had taken its toll. I passed that on to the car, so it was no surprise to the team that I wasn't at my best today."

Evenepoel is certainly disappointed, but after all his setbacks this winter, he knows there are more important things than this race. "It's okay; the sun is shining, and everything is fine. I have to accept it; I can't expect miracles. Today's cycling requires a lot of training to reach top form, and it's no secret that I haven't been able to train very well."

That meant he saw the decline coming. "Maybe a little. I felt fine until the last hour when my legs felt really heavy. I think I had to pay the price for the duration of the race." It's not surprising that Evenepoel did so well in the Amstel Gold Race and then so poorly in Liège. "That's exactly why," he says. "If I feel good in the final, I must take advantage of that. It was a bit less in the final today, but I still have another race ahead of me, which I will use to improve and build up."

There was a remarkable moment on the Roche-aux-Faucons. Evenepoel ran into trouble early on and even seemed to be losing ground. This led to speculation that he had abandoned the race, but we saw the Belgian finish in Liège. Evenepoel's brief pause had another reason, sports director Klaas Lodewyck revealed in the NOS broadcast. "No, he didn't abandon the race. He didn't want to be in the spotlight because there were still enough guys at the front who deserved to be in the spotlight."

Lodewyck did not see Evenepoel's off day coming. "Not really. Remco was good in the Brabantse Pijl and the Amstel Gold Race and did well in the Flèche Wallonne. I think it was a rebound from the past few weeks. No, illness had nothing to do with his off day." There is no cause for concern for the sports director. "That's sport. Sometimes you win, and sometimes you lose. He had a short preparation period: there's still work to be done," he said, putting Evenepoel's weaker performance into perspective.