After dirty eye forced abandon over the weekend Remco Evenepoel looks to return to form at Coppa Bernocchi: "If everything goes normally, that should work out"

Remco Evenepoel couldn't contest victory at Giro dell'Emilia last weekend against a rampant Tadej Pogacar. Abandoning early, there had been some suggestion the Belgian departed early due to the fact he could no longer take the win. Although new images prove that not to be the case, Evenepoel returns to action this Monday with a point to prove.

The real reason for Evenepoel's abandonment last weekend, turned out to be some dirt in the Soudal - Quick-Step leader's eye, as seen in images circulating on social media where Evenepoel can be seen getting water poured over his face by his team's staff member at the road side.

As mentioned though, the Olympic champion returns to racing this Monday afternoon, leading the Soudal - Quick-Step charge at Coppa Bernocchi. "I'm just making the best of it, that's all I can do," he says in quotes collected by HLN. "On Monday and Tuesday, I want to finish a good Coppa Bernocchi and Tre Valli Varesine to really be at my best in Lombardy, that's the goal. If everything goes normally, that should work out."

Ahead of Coppa Bernocchi 2024, Team DS Davide Bramati also sounded optimistic. “In the past three seasons, we won twice and racked up a total of four podium finishes in Bernocchi, so it goes without saying this is a race we like a lot and where we hope to be again in contention for a good result, on what will be a demanding and quite selective parcours. Things didn’t go as planned for us in Emilia, but that’s cycling, and this only motivates us even more for Monday," he previewed to the team's official website.