Remco Evenepoel is one of the big losers on the opening day of the Tour de France. The Belgian missed the split in the final and lost 39 seconds to Tadej Pogacar and Jonas Vingegaard. However, he doesn’t want to panic yet.
In the final phase of the opening stage from and to Lille, echelons formed. While top favorites Pogacar and Vingegaard were alert, Evenepoel and his teammates from Soudal Quick-Step were not in the first group.
“I didn’t really feel like it was going very fast, but it split,” the third-place finisher of last year’s Tour reacted to Sporza. “We were very good all day, but we let ourselves be lulled to sleep by the calmness in the peloton. It’s our mistake, collectively.”
This means that Evenepoel immediately has to make up time on Pogacar and Vingegaard, who were on the podium with him last year. But the reigning Olympic road race and time trial champion did not want to be immediately thrown off course after the first stage. “There are still twenty days to go.”
“These are stupid seconds that we lose, but last year I was already forty seconds behind after the fourth stage.” Evenepoel then won a time trial and had to concede more than nine minutes to Pogacar and three minutes to Vingegaard at the end of the Tour.
“This is not what we came here for”
Team boss Jurgen Foré was very disappointed. The successor to Patrick Lefevere saw not only leader Evenepoel, but also sprinter Tim Merlier fall behind. As a result, there was no stage win for Soudal Quick-Step.
“This is not what we came here for,” Fouré told the Belgian broadcaster VTM. “If you come here with a sprinter, the intention is that you are always in the first echelon. We were collectively too far back with the team.”
The Tour de France continues on Sunday with a hilly stage from Lauwin-Planque to Boulogne-sur-Mer. Jasper Philipsen wears the yellow jersey after his sprint victory in the opening stage.