Wiggins and Hincapie defend Evenepoel after Armstrong labels Belgian a ‘whiner extraordinaire’

Remco Evenepoel lashed out at fellow team leader Florian Lipowitz after the first mountain stage of the Tour de France, but tensions within Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe had already eased by the following day. Former Tour de France winner Bradley Wiggins, who was never afraid to speak his mind during his own career, has now come to Evenepoel’s defence.

After the stage over the Tourmalet, Evenepoel complained about Lipowitz’s unwillingness to contribute. “I asked for a lead-out, but I did not get one. Yes, I was angry, and rightly so. At the Volta a Catalunya, I rode on the front for him for 30 kilometres. I asked him to do one kilometre of work, and he could not do it. That made me angry, and it will have to be discussed properly.”

One day later, the situation had already calmed considerably within the German team. Evenepoel, Lipowitz, sports director Zak Dempster and domestique Tim van Dijke all played down the dispute, explaining that there had been some miscommunication and that the matter was now behind them. The two team leaders also underlined that message by appearing together in a video on social media.

Evenepoel’s outburst naturally became a major talking point outside the team. Lance Armstrong said on TheMOVE podcast that he first heard the Belgian’s comments through a message from Johan Bruyneel. “Johan sent this to us on WhatsApp, and I simply could not resist responding,” Armstrong said. “I wrote back: ‘Whiner extraordinaire.’”

“Johan replied: ‘Former football player,’ which is true,” Armstrong continued before putting the issue to Bradley Wiggins. The Brit offered a more sympathetic interpretation of Evenepoel’s reaction. “We have all experienced those frustrations immediately after the finish, when things that were supposed to happen did not happen. What I would say in Remco’s defence is that, within a few minutes of crossing the line, a microphone is immediately put in front of his face.”

“At a moment like that, we all say things that we might regret 24 hours later. Unfortunately, that is part of the sport. The problem for Remco is that a quote like that is immediately on the front pages the following day. It instantly adds fuel to all the stories that were already circulating about him before the start of the Tour,” Wiggins said of the relationship between Evenepoel and Lipowitz.

George Hincapie strongly agreed with Wiggins, although he felt Evenepoel might have been better off holding his tongue. “Yes, you probably should not say something like that. You can be angry, but you absolutely should not say it publicly. He rode on the front for Lipowitz throughout Catalunya, so from that perspective, he had a point. But some of his frustration also came from the fact that the cooperation in that group was not working properly.”