This was not how stage one of the Tour de France was meant to go for Remco Evenepoel, and definitely not how it was meant to go for a Belgian team whose DNA is built on creating and profiting from crosswind-induced echelons, not being caught out by them.
But after only one day’s racing, Soudal Quick-Step and Evenepoel are already on the back foot in the Tour, losing 39 seconds to Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) and Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) after the peloton fractured with 17km remaining.
Evenepoel wasn’t the only GC rider to cede time: Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe’s Primoz Roglič and Florian Lipowitz both lost 39 seconds as well, as did Ineos Grenadiers’s Carlos Rodríguez, Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale’s Felix Gall and Pogačar’s teammate João Almeida.
But the big story is Evenepoel. “This is not what should have happened but it did happen,” Soudal Quick-Step CEO Jurgen Foré bemoaned after the race. “We came here for a sprint victory [with Tim Merlier] and not to lose time, and we don’t have both. What happened was not supposed to happen.
“As a group we were too far back when it broke. We need to analyse it and for sure we will talk about it.”
Evenepoel was equally as blunt. “We had 17km to go, and it was the last chance for echelons which we knew, but we fell asleep because of the relaxed environment we were in at that moment.
“After the [second of three categorised] climb of Cassel [80km to the finish], it was quite relaxed in the bunch and we became sleepy because of that. We believed it was going to be a sprint so it was a big mistake from us and a pretty unfortunate situation.”
It was, as Foré and Evenepoel both alluded to, a double blow for Quick-Step, as Merlier, the in-form sprinter of the season, had been one of the pre-race favourites to take the first yellow jersey, which instead went to Jasper Philipsen of Alpecin-Deceuninck.
“The most disappointing thing is that we didn’t get to go for the stage with Tim. That is more disappointing than the time loss,” Evenepoel said.
Despite the disappointment, Evenepoel attempted to put a positive spin on the outcome, noting that opportunities to take back time will present themselves in the forthcoming week, starting with stage two’s Classics-like finale.
“We have to look forward. It’s still long, it’s 21 stages, one down and we’ll focus on tomorrow and try to make the best of it,” he said.
“Tomorrow will be an explosive race and Tuesday will also be a tricky stage, so I think there’ll be many more chances, but it’s always a bit shit to start like this. It’s still a very long race. We have a stupid time loss but we can’t change it.
“It will not change the strategy [in the next few days]. A lot of guys want to race for the stage tomorrow and the GC guys will always be in the mix – the same for stage four, so I think we have to be fully focused until the end and not fall asleep anymore.”
