Comeback King Evenepoel Blasts Open Tour Podium Battle

Remco Evenepoel sounded stunned at the finish of stage 10 of the Tour de France in Le Lioran.

“In the end, [Jonas] Vingegaard was worse than me after all,” he told Belgian media at the finish after moving into third place overall and reinvigorating the battle for the podium.

Neither Evenepoel nor the most passionate Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe fan could not have expected such an outcome minutes before the finish. The co-leader went from dropping off the back of the chasing contenders’ group on the last climb, the Col de Font de Cère, to distancing his rivals in his ferocious sprint for the line.

The “annoying” changes of pace on the group’s front in the pursuit of runaway stage winner Pogačar led to his moment of weakness, albeit as his own teammate and co-leader Florian Lipowitz made an acceleration on the front. Evenepoel revealed post-stage he was briefly on the verge of cramping.

“A lot of pain was going through my head, so I couldn’t think much. Just pedal, and that was the right choice. I struggled for two to three minutes,” Evenepoel said.

Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe’s leadership debate has been making headlines during the Tour, with the team insisting all is good between its leaders despite Evenepoel lashing out earlier in the race. Now, he and Lipowitz are up to third and sixth overall, separated by 38 seconds.

Evenepoel thought about following Pogačar attack

Evenepoel kept the group in sight and returned on the short technical descent before surprising fellow contenders Vingegaard, Paul Seixas (Decathlon CMA CGM Team), and Lidl-Trek pair Juan Ayuso and Mattias Skjelmose with an early acceleration.

“We didn’t get much out of those guys from Lidl-Trek again,” Evenepoel added post-stage, inferring a lack of work on the front in the pursuit of Pogačar.

Evenepoel remains optimistic as the battle for second and third place in the Tour de France has become even more open. “On the toughest climb, I was actually well-positioned at the front and even considered jumping after Tadej for a moment. I don’t think I’m any worse uphill than I used to be.”

With 12 seconds gained on the Dane across the line and six bonus seconds for second place on the stage, his 18-second ambush on Vingegaard might mean a shift of the power balance in the Tour de France fight for second place. He is just 30 seconds behind the Dane on GC.

Belgian superstar’s increased maturity

His sports director Patxi Vila believes Evenpoel “showed his character. Also a bit like in the Tourmalet [when the Belgian blasted Lipowitz over not leading him out on stage six], I think we see that Remco is a bit more mature: he’s able to handle the effort and just not blow up, to take his own pace and keep fighting.”

Speaking to Velo and media outside their team bus, Vila confirmed that the podium is their goal: “We see for the moment Tadej completely out of reach so that’s another story. So for the moment, the race is against the podium contenders, between us. Today, when we saw Isaac [del Toro] having a bit of a hard time, we tried to benefit from it and I think it was a good collaboration … we’re fighting for second and third on the podium, it’s still open.”

The result also came as a positive response to stage 9’s mediocre showing from the team. Evenepoel and Lipowitz were left without teammates to support them in the finale into Ussel.

“Two days ago, perhaps we had to do some homework. Today I think the team was very good. Hats off to them,” Vila said.

Vingegaard ‘did all the work’

As the man in second place overall, Jonas Vingegaard did much of the chase work in the group, in vain, as Pogačar rode to his third stage win of this year’s race.

“I could feel that I’d probably explode if I tried to go with him,” Vingegaard told Danish channel TV2 of the moment Pogačar accelerated to victory, with 16 kilometers left to race. “I tried to ride my own pace. If I get help, I get help, and if not, that’s how it is.”

“I actually think it was a stage that suited him better. I think I can be satisfied and I believe that my days will come,” the man wearing the King of the Mountains jersey added.

His team management had other explanations for Vingegaard’s loss of time to Pogačar, Evenepoel, Lipowitz, Seixas, Skjelmose, and Ayuso on the stage.

“Jonas did all the work and then it’s normal that at an arrival like this, guys can still sprint away from him,” sport director Marc Reef told Feltet and Velo.

“We are here to try to win the race, we wanted to keep the gap as close as possible, that’s also what Jonas did. I’m really proud of him, about the spirit he has been showing.”

Vingegaard’s small loss of time could be a hiccup, a forgettable footnote in the whole scheme of things — or it could be indicative of bigger problems to come when the race hits the Vosges Saturday with a tough mountain day to Le Markstein.