"Evenepoel simply can't ride that hard": Dutch expert questions Belgium's tactics at European Championships

The 2025 European Cycling Championships were Belgium's opportunity to get back on Tadej Pogacar for his authoritative demonstration of power in Kigali week earlier. While Pogacar had to make ends meet without the absent Primoz Roglic, Remco Evenepoel had the ever-strong Belgian fleet at his command. However Laurens ten Dam finds that the Belgian team have made some tactical mistakes that might have cost them the title.

In his Live Slow, Ride Fast podcast, the Dutch ex-pro looks back at the race that took place on Sunday. After the second lap, Pogacar was already without his Slovenian teammates while Evenepoel still had Louis Vervaeke, Tiesj Benoot and Steff Cras. However instead of using their numbers as a tactical advantage, Belgium pulled over to the front of the pack and helped Pogacar by making the race hard.

"Pogacar was isolated, and the Belgians were down to about four men. Then you could have just let it all fall silent and let Evenepoel's helpers attack. On the other hand, Pogacar would never have lost this race," Ten Dam admits, noting that Pogacar would've been able to easily make up multiple minutes against Evenpoel's colleagues if they were allowed to ride away.

At that point, Pogacar's main task was to isolate Evenepoel and/or ride away on his own. Something he did soon during third time the long ascent of the day. "Evenepoel simply can't keep riding that hard uphill for that long, but he eventually holds Pogacar back by a minute. Pogacar can quickly gain a minute uphill, and Evenepoel doesn't have that ability uphill."

Then was a cat and mouse race with Evenepoel trying to counter a one-minute lag on Pogacar, but without success. The damage was already done and Evenepoel could only settle for yet another silver medal. What could've Belgium done differently?

"They should have climbed those three major climbs as slowly as possible and come into the final with as many Belgians as possible," suggested Ten Dam. "So they could take turns attacking. Actually, the exact opposite of what they did, yes. But yes, you also want to radiate confidence to your leader. Evenepoel radiated it himself."

Ten Dam sounds optimistic that the national coach Serge Pauwels will have learnt a lesson from the last two weeks that beating Pogacar head-on is a near impossible task for anyone. Then we can hope for more diverse tactics from Belgian team in years to come. Even though Pogacar's overwhelming strength might end up countering most efforts...

"But now that he's been caught out twice, if I were national coach Serge Pauwels, I'd talk to Evenepoel and suggest a different approach. He's being outplayed man-to-man, so maybe you should try to make it five-on-one."