Remco Evenepoel was forced to abandon the Tour de France on Saturday. The Soudal Quick-Step rider from Belgium had a difficult lead-up to the French stage race, but after the fourteenth stage, he cannot name a clear cause for his dip in form.
“It just didn’t work,” Evenepoel said when speaking to Sporza at the team bus a few hours after his abandonment. “There was nothing there. You can have a bad day, but three in a row is not normal. It was the best option to stop.”
The 25-year-old Evenepoel decided to dismount on the notorious Col du Tourmalet. “Actually, it was team leader Klaas Lodewyck who told me that I had to stop,” Evenepoel said. The Belgian had a mixed Tour up to that point.
Evenepoel won one stage, but suffered a significant blow in the time trial on Friday, finishing twelfth. Despite that setback, he retained his third place in the general classification. “Until today, everything looked pretty okay, but it has gone from bad to very bad.”
“I have no idea what the cause is. We still have to investigate that. Everyone knows that I had a terrible winter,” Evenepoel continued, who struggled with an injury to his right shoulder after a fall in December 2024. “But that has little impact on the bike. I mainly notice that in daily life. For example, I can’t carry a bag with my right.”
‘It’s just one setback after another’
Evenepoel does not know what the cause is for the rapid decline. “It could be anything. Fatigue? Is my body not good this year?” he wondered aloud. “I don’t know. I don’t feel bad off the bike, but on the bike it doesn’t work.”
Evenepoel also suffered from this in the lead-up to the Tour. After the Critérium du Dauphiné, he barely rode his bike. “I couldn’t really do any training in the lead-up to the Tour. I couldn’t handle any intensity.”
The abandonment in the Tour and uncertainty about his physical condition weigh heavily on Evenepoel. “It has already been a seriously difficult year,” said the Belgian, while fighting back tears. “I wanted to be at the start here in the best possible shape, but in the end everything collapses again. It’s just one setback after another.”