Evenepoel shares unpleasant detail of December crash and responds to 'extreme' rumors about him and Oumi

Remco Evenepoel has already spoken extensively about his superb cycling season and the huge setbacks. Recently, he gave an update on his recovery after a crash during a training session. In conversation with HLN, the Belgian now also discusses other things, his wife Oumi, for example, and the first minutes after his crash in December.

With two gold medals at the Olympics, a third place in his first Tour de France, and yet another world title on the time trial bike, Evenepoel crowned himself "Belgian of the Year," the motive for an extended conversation. He confesses, for example, that after his gold medal in the Olympic time trial, he already predicted that one in the road race could follow. "After that first gold medal, I drove home, and as I sat down to dinner with my parents and my grandparents, I had momentum and said, 'If nothing goes wrong - no crash, no bad luck - I'll win again.' That's how confident I was. Even then, My loved ones knew I would win that second gold."

One of his closest relatives is Oumi, his wife, who celebrates the greatest successes with him and, at the same time, stands by his side in the darkest moments. As such, they are always puzzled whenever rumors arise about their relationship. Even recently, when an anonymous WhatsApp screenshot circulated suggesting possible adultery. 'Gossip and rumors are nothing new to us, although this time it was extreme. It's always been like that. We try to support each other. Oumi and I discuss everything openly; we don't keep anything from each other. We don't lower ourselves to that level, and even though sometimes it scares us, we mostly laugh about it.' Oumi: 'We sometimes hear the craziest things about ourselves. That we are pregnant. Or breaking up. Or moving to another country. But we know better.'

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Evenepoel waited over half an hour for help

On the subject of his current condition, besides the fact that Evenepoel crashed into the door of a van and is now recovering from all kinds of fractures, he also talks about the time after his crash. "In that first moment, there's only pain. I just hoped I would get help quickly. The ambulance and the police had to come via small roads, which took quite a long time; the whole time, I couldn't reach anyone because of an outage at Telenet. I think I ended up lying there for 35 minutes. On the wet asphalt, at five degrees."

Oumi also features in this story because Evenepoel had been so eager to be there for her this winter, in the final period of her studies. "I knew immediately that I would be facing a long rehabilitation, which would then coincide precisely with Oumi's period of studying. I tried to take that positively. But after a week or two, when everyone was leaving on training camps, and Oumi was studying, and I was sitting around reading books or watching movies, I started to get bored and was having a hard time," he describes the doubts. Nevertheless, he tries to be there for his wife. "Now that I'm injured, I try to do things the other way around. Cook dinner for once. Or make sure she can start studying immediately after breakfast."

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