The Tour de France takes no prisoners. Under its facade of visual beauty and absorbing sporting spectacle, it’s a ruthless beast that grinds down the bodies and minds of its contestants, shattering the ambitions of some. On stage 14 Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-Quickstep) became La Grande Boucle’s latest victim. The Belgian rider came to France with fire in his belly and dreams of yellow, but like so many before him, he was chewed up and spat out by cycling’s most merciless race.
It hardly started well for last year’s third-place finisher, after he lost time on day one. Despite delivering a commanding time trial stage win in the first week, and nestling himself on the overall podium, it always felt like he was struggling to assert himself at the race — on the climbs in Normandy, Brittany and the Massif Central he was not only unable to match the two main protagonists Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) and Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) but he wasn’t looking like the best of the rest.
However, it wasn’t until the Pyrenees and their unrelenting climbs, that things really began to unravel. Firstly, he was dropped on the penultimate climb, the Col du Soulor, on stage 12, and although he came back, suffered up to Hautacam, losing time to all his white jersey rivals. Then came the humiliating Peyragudes TT, where he was passed by his two-minute man, Vingegaard, in what was “a really bad performance”. Finally, on the hardest stage of the Tour yet, everything cracked, and his race came to an early end.
Where and why did it all go wrong? At the finish at Superbagnères, Soudal-Quickstep’s sports director, Tom Steels said: “It was the third day in a row where he didn’t feel great. Like I said this morning, you hope for the best and you hope it turns around, but it didn’t turn around.”
Evenepoel, who had a disrupted offseason due to a crash, and his team are not desperately searching for immediate answers — they are experienced enough to know that in elite sport these things happen.
“Maybe he will get sick in a few days, we will see. Let’s hope he can recover quickly,” Steels was candid when speaking to the media.
Evenepoel himself admitted: “I didn’t have the best preparation coming into the Tour, but I did everything I could to be in the best possible shape, but I just wasn’t at 110%, which is what you need at the Tour de France to fight for the general classification. For three days already I wasn’t feeling good, and today in the morning I could feel I was empty and on the climb the legs just weren’t there. It’s a pity I had to retire, but it’s not something that will change my relationships with the race.”
There may be speculation from the baying crowds that he could have continued, with no obvious signs or injury or illness. Steels commented on why the call was made so early on in the stage, on the slopes of the Col du Tourmalet: “I think it’s wise to not continue and just recover well. He still has some goals this year. Maybe if he continued in the condition he had, then maybe the rest of the season is lost. You have to call the decision in time when you feel something is wrong. He is not himself, it’s the third day in a row that he doesn’t feel great and then you have to be really careful not to go over the limit and lose months instead of days.”
Evenepoel had been leading the white jersey competition (Image: ASO)
So, it’s back to the drawing board for Evenepoel. 2025 has been frustrating, it has delivered some highs but it won’t compare to his double Olympic gold, World Championship TT and Tour podium success from last year. What can he salvage from this year?
Steels believes there is still more to come from their leader: “He was very disappointed to leave the Tour. He was world champion on the road, world champion in the time trial and I think that’s the next aim he has to go for now.”
Or could we see a return to the Vuelta a España, the race which remains Evenepoel’s sole Grand Tour triumph when he won in 2022. With two TTs and plenty of hard climbs, he could be tempted — although he would likely have to contend with Pogačar and Vingegaard for the maillot rojo.
As for the ultimate prize in cycling, the maillot jaune of the Tour, there’s no sympathy on these roads — just endless climbs, relentless speed, and the cold reality that the Tour doesn’t care who you are or the past successes you have claimed. In a race where only the strongest survive, Evenepoel’s abandonment is a stark reminder of the Tour’s brutal nature.
