"Something's clearly wrong" - Armstrong, Wiggins and Bruyneel share opinions on Remco Evenepoel's Tour de France disaster
Stage 14 was the toughest day of the Tour de France so far on paper and although it didn't leave to differences as big as in the Hautacam, the built up fatigue did it's damage and saw the withdrawal of an exhausted and mentally beaten down Remco Evenepoel. On the Wedu podcasts, several pundits have shared their opinions on the Olympic and World Champion.Bradley Wiggins: "This was predictable. He was so disillusioned after that time trial on Friday—he was overtaken by Vingegaard, you know. On the Tourmalet, you see him riding completely to the side of the road. Frustrated towards the cameras, and longing for the moment the support car will come and pick him up. Something's clearly wrong." The Briton believes however that Evenepoel came into the Tour without the ideal preparation, and payed the price of that and the understandable high ambitions. "In this Tour, he had to compete against the best rider in the world (Tadej Pogacar, ed.) and the second-best rider (Jonas Vingegaard, ed.), who had a near-perfect preparation. If you want to compete with that, you have to be one hundred percent. If Remco hadn't crashed, he would have been in a better position. After all, in the time trial in this Tour, he showed that he's still one of the best riders in the world. It's just that four months without training is a very long time."
Read also"I can't pinpoint just one thing" - Remco Evenepoel opens up about Tour de France departure and potential problemsJohan Bruyneel particularly focused on the 'abuse' that the TV motorbike had, staying with Evenepoel all the way until his departure from the race and regularly riding besides him much to his displeasure: "You can't portray me as a defender of Evenepoel, who has a strong character. But I understand his irritation with the cameraman. He was so disappointed, so sad. Just leave that guy alone for a while.""That guy didn't see a bike for four months after his crash in training (correction: Evenepoel spent 1 month without training, and 2 without training on the road, unlike what's been said by both, ed.). In Brabantse Pijl, he started his season with a lot of intensity, but without enough foundation. And that's exactly what you need if you want to excel in a Grand Tour."At the Criterium du Dauphiné it looked as if Evenepoel was back on track and his first 11 days at the Tour also indicated that he was in or near his very best level, but into the mountains this proved to be a different challenge.Read also"He might have won two more stages" - Former teammate very surprised about Remco Evenepoel's Tour de France withdrawalLance Amstrong argued that not only the physical aspects, but also the psychological pressure he's had to endure these weeks have payed a price. "There's still something going on. The speculation about his transfer, which I think is reasonably reliable. Those rumors are a drain on my energy anyway. Besides, I don't want to be the manager of Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe right now, with Lipowitz doing so fantastically with his current third-place finish in the Tour. You can't just push him aside for Remco now, can you?"Spencer Martin however is not as understandable of the Belgian's decision, and does put the pressure on his shoulders regarding another Grand Tour where he will not achieve a top GC result: "Remco is consistently dismissed as a young rider, but he's only a year younger than Pogacar. Granted, he was unlucky with that postal car (which led to his crash in December, ed.) and shouldn't panic now, but his opportunities aren't endless. The lost years are starting to pile up.Read alsoDISCUSSION Tour de France Stage 14 | Was Remco right to abandon the Tour? Did Pogacar not have the legs to win today?"It was one of the hardest stages of my life": Jonas Vingegaard continues to struggle in Tour de France
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