A first step of Tour de France To forget for the double Olympic champion at Paris Olympic Games 2024! Indeed, in a first act dedicated to the sprinters of this 112nd edition, Remco Evenepoel (Sudal Quick-Step) was trapped by borders and lost 39 seconds on its main competitors in the final victory, which are Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) or Jonas Vingegaard (Team Visma | Lease a Bike). LE BELGE YOU “WolfPack” stopped at our microphone Cyclism’Actu To talk about this step to forget for all training Soudal Quick-Step.
Video – Remco Evenepoel, at the microphone of Cyclsim'Actu
“A big collective fault …”
The double Olympic champion said: “I think that we fell asleep a little bit, because all day, we were in front of it, we were well grouped. And then, I had the impression that the peloton was quite calm, and afterwards, we fell asleep a little. We thought it was going to go to the finish to make a massive sprint, and then it broke, there was the border, and yeah, I was all in the 2ᵉ group. But now you have to look forward.
These are quite annoying seconds, let's say. So it's always annoying to start a big tour with a little delay, that means that you have to hunt. But I just said, that's how it is. There was Tadej (Pogacar) and Jonas (Vingegaard) in front, that's for sure, but if not, there were not many guys in the general classification before. So that may be a little positive point in all the negativity we had today. But you have to accept it, you have to continue, you have to look at tomorrow, you have to look at the Tuesday stage, and then try to take the chance with Tim (Merlier), because I think for him, it's more disappointing than for me today. We have to refocus, we have to talk about it, learn from our mistakes and go forward “concludes the leader in training Soudal Quick-Step, Remco Evenepoel.
