Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-QuickStep) is confident he is out of the "dip" that saw him struggle at Liège-Basotnge-Liège and fail to compete with Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG).
The Olympic champion is currently racing at the Tour de Romandie as he continues with his return from injury and build-up to the Tour de France, having missed the first three months of the season.
Evenepoel lost 56 seconds to a group of five in the final of stage 2 on Thursday, as new race leader Alex Baudin (EF Education-EasyPost) led the attack and Lorenzo Fortunato (XDS Astana) won the day.
But Evenepoel was unfazed when he spoke post-stage, having had his team control for most of the stage, attacked on the final climb, won the sprint for sixth and had a teammate, Junior Lecerf, up in the late breakaway.
"I had a super good feeling today, so I was really satisfied," said Evenepoel to Sporza at the team bus.
"In any case, I feel like I'm growing again. I don't want to celebrate too soon, but my dip in Liège seems to be behind me now and I'm on the rise again. Let's hope that I can make progress until Sunday and that nice things will come out of it."
Evenepoel was slightly disappointed to have lost time and not made the most of an 18-rider group making it over the last climb to La Chaumont together. However, he knows that the difference in the race for overall victory will be made on Saturday's Queen stage to Thyon 2000 and Sunday's 17-kilometre ITT in Geneva.
"It's a bit of a shame because if we had been riding well in that group, we would have gained three or four minutes on everyone. But many riders were gambling, which is only logical in such a final," said Evenepoel, recalling the final 30km of stage 2.
"It was great to see what [Lecerf] did at the front. So I think it was a successful day for us; it was pretty ideal.
"In any case, we will try to keep Junior with us for as long as possible. The time trial on Sunday should also suit him. He should try to finish as high as possible."
Evenepoel's young teammate will start Friday's stage in second overall to Baudin, five seconds off the Frenchman's lead, with another Belgian, Lennert Van Eetvelt (Lotto), likely the biggest threat to Evenepoel and João Almeida (UAE Team Emirates-XRG).
Van Eetvelt has just under a 50-second advantage over the two pre-race favourites in the GC, with stage 3 also primed for more GC action on an undulating 183km route that ends with an uphill kick to the finish in Cossonay.
"First of all, there is another difficult finish on Friday. Maybe I can already get some bonus seconds," said Evenepoel, who is confident that if he can stay close to the lead on stages 3 and 4, he can do the damage in the final time trial.
"I was also able to ride my sprint in the second group [on Thursday]. Now I just have to make sure I don't lose any time, and then I can try to pull out all the stops in the time trial on Sunday. I can then gain a lot of time on the men at the front."
The best Remco Evenepoel is yet to be seen in 2025, but the Olympic champion seems to be on an upward trajectory, with more than enough time to reach his peak for the Grand Départ of the Tour de France on July 5 in Lille.
