Evenepoel clear about Vingegaard after gravel ride: 'I understand him, but he showed no balls'

Remco Evenepoel was one of the tastemakers in the much-discussed gravel stage of the Tour de France. The Belgian general classification rider from Soudal Quick-Step showed himself frequently on the attack, although his and Tadej Pogacar's attacks were skillfully nipped in the bud by Jonas Vingegaard, from whom Evenepoel might have expected a bit more aggression...

At a certain point, consideration rider Pogacar decided to accelerate, which led to a reaction from Evenepoel. It caused Vingegaard to have to come out of the pipe himself to close the gap, a mission he eventually succeeded in. That resulted in an elite group of three, though only Pogacar and Evenepoel wanted to spin. So Vingegaard held off, much to the displeasure of the Fleming and the Slovenian.

Evenepoel understood course tactics Vingegaard, but thought it showed little balls

'If we had turned around and joined the leading group, the race could have been ridden there,' said the Aerokogel Van Schepdaal afterwards. 'Unfortunately that didn't happen, although that is part of the tactics of certain teams. Tadej and I were certainly not happy about it. I really had the feeling that the final podium of the Tour could be determined here. Unfortunately we have to accept that, although I think sometimes you just have to show balls in the race. Unfortunately, Jonas didn't have any. It was unfortunately part of their plan. Fortunately, there is no man overboard and the Tour is still long.'

These are clear texts from Evenepoel, who thus also somewhat understood why the killer bees refused to take over. 'I understand the reasons for not taking over from Jonas, of course, from a team tactical point of view. Still, Tadej and I felt bad, as we both like to attack from a long distance. We wanted to continue as a group, but Jonas was riding defensively. Again: we have to accept that. He will have every reason to.

Still, the 24-year-old Fleming was certainly convinced that the Tour could already be in some kind of fold, we may conclude. 'It also happened on one of the last really difficult strips. There was a strong tailwind, so the strip was particularly fast. In the end, you can also see that we had a big gap to grab pretty quickly. In no time at all it was about thirty or forty seconds,' he reinforced his argument.

Pogacar, according to Evenepoel, benefited a little too much from motorcycles

Then there was another moment where Evenepoel seemed to be having a little problem. And that was at the moment when the guys from Visma | Lease a Bike turned up the throttle! 'I told my teammates to get me to the front places, but they didn't succeed. I wasn't too happy about that, since I had to close the gap myself. And that just at the spot where I actually wanted to attack. Luckily I had the legs for it," Evenepoel said;

It's something to remember: attacking, especially in such stages. Just elbows out and fight!" concluded Evenepoel, full of fighting spirit, after which he briefly commented on one of Pogacar's attacks, which he was unable to parry. 'Tadej also benefited somewhat from the bikes, which rode very close in front of him. So that took away a lot of headwind. Maybe the organization should look at that. All in all, I can't complain. It was a good day for us. On to the rest day, it was a great week!