All talk has been about the iconic rivalry between Tadej Pogačar and Jonas Vingegaard. Before this Tour de France began, the expectation was that it would be these two riders fighting for the yellow jersey, trading blows in the mountains just like they have for the last three Tours leading up to this one. It made sense that there wasn’t much expectation on the shoulders of Soudal-Quick-Step’s Remco Evenepoel to challenge the duo – the 24-year-old is in his debut participation in the race and hasn’t always reliably performed against the biggest general classification riders of this generation. But the Tour is full of surprises, and Remco Evenepoel is turning into one of them.
The first sign that the Belgian rider would be a key protagonist in this year’s rollercoaster Tour de France storyline came two weeks ago in Italy. It was on stage four that Evenepoel finished in second place behind Pogačar after a testing stage in the Apennines, and he backed this up with a big stage win in the individual time trial later that week. Since then, Evenepoel’s performances have been steady and clinical – he’s been sensible about using energy and has measured his efforts in a way that we haven’t always seen in the past.
Evenepoel’s riding in this race is a clear sign of his maturity as a bike rider. He’s come of age in this Tour, acutely aware that racing over three weeks is about saving time and energy whenever possible. There have been occasions when it looked like Evenepoel was even riding within himself, rather than making direct responses to attacks from riders like Pogačar. This has all led to the Soudal-Quick-Step rider coming into the final week in a perfectly poised position – he proved that on stage 17 of the Tour de France to Superdévoluy.
Deep in the final week of the Tour de France, riders experiencing mental and physical fatigue – especially if they haven’t paced their efforts correctly – is a common occurrence. When Evenepoel launched an attack on the final slopes of the climb on stage 17, however, he proved that he’s every bit capable of coping with the load that La Grande Boucle places on riders. As the Belgian rider made his move – in his usual smooth style and wearing his trademark poker face – the famous duo who were on his wheel could not follow. The gap opened up, and Evenepoel was taking time back.
He might have only ended up gaining 12 seconds at the finish, but the moment Evenepoel dropped Pogačar and Vingegaard signified more than the end result. It firmly marks the Belgian rider's arrival as a Tour de France rider. There are no longer just two people who should be considered as yellow jersey contenders. Remco Evenepoel has forced people to open their eyes and see him.
“I think what I did today was perfect, I was up there with the two best GC riders in the world. I could drop them for a bit on that last climb, and in the end, I'm a bit stronger in third [place],” Evenepoel said after the stage. “For the moment we're doing very well, the whole team is very motivated. Everything is working well, and I hope it keeps going like this for another three days, and then it's all by myself in the TT.”
Evenepoel currently sits just under two minutes behind Vingegaard in the battle for second place in this race. Pogačar’s yellow jersey is realistically out of reach (the Slovenian rider is five minutes ahead of him on the general classification) but there’s a real chance for the Belgian rider to cause an upset and become the filling in a Pogačar-Vingegaard sandwich on the podium in Nice this weekend. Based on his previous performances in the discipline, Evenepoel should have an advantage on the final time trial which will close this race, and today’s result will have given him confidence in his current ability.
Whether he sits in second or third place by the end of the Tour de France, however, this is a race which will always mark a pivotal point in Evenepoel’s career and in the progression of the sport as a whole. The duo of Pogačar and Vingegaard are not unreachable, and there’s another rider who demands to be considered. His name is Remco Evenepoel, and we’ll be hearing it for a long time yet.
