“He is a phenomenon” - Chris Froome backs Remco Evenepoel to contest for Maillot Jaune on Tour de France debut
Cycling
Very few people will have as much knowledge about what it takes to win the Tour de France, as Chris Froome does. A four time winner of the Maillot Jaune, Froome is very excited by the upcoming Tour debut of former Vuelta a Espana winner, Remco Evenepoel.
“He is a phenomenon. What Remco has achieved so far is incredible. I am sure he will achieve even more in the future," says the 39-year-old Brit, who won the Tour de France in 2013, 2015, 2016 and 2017, full of praise for Evenepoel in conversation with RTBF, having had a close view of the Soudal - Quick-Step leader's return to racing from injury at the recent Criterium du Dauphine.
Evenepoel had a somewhat mixed time at the Dauphine, winning the time-trial and spending a few days in the Maillot Jaune. Although his climbing legs clearly weren't at their best just yet, with the Belgian slipping down to finish 7th overall, Froome, a three-time Criterium du Dauphine winner in his own right, was impressed by what he saw from Evenepoel.
"He completely dominated the time trial and put himself in a good position to claim a strong overall classification,” the Israel - Premier Tech rider recalls and as such, Froome is backing Evenepoel to contest for the Maillot Jaune at the Tour de France in the coming weeks. "We certainly can't rule him out. He will be the center of attention in the Tour. I have no advice to give him. He is doing an excellent job.”
Although he has no advice for Evenepoel, Froome did send a message in regards to his own experiences of riding to win a three-week stage race. “You have to try to lose as little time as possible on the difficult days and grab as many seconds as possible when the legs are good," concludes the 39-year-old, who still has hopes of making the Tour de France startlist himself. "I also don't think that the pressure from outside can be greater than the pressure you put on yourself."
Maybe Chris can pick up a nice gig doing live commentary on the TDF this year.
Even if Remco had the Sky team that Bradley Wiggins, Fromme and Thomas had, I don't see it. Remco won't have the level of team support that Pogacar and Roglic has. It wouldn't surprise me to see Matteo Jorgensen finish higher on the GC than Remo given better team support and DS.
That's the kiss of death, lol. Has he seen Remco get dropped like a bad habit in the high mountains?
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- This from the man that almost destroyed the “essence” of cycling.Djs01-04-2025
- Regarding one point in the article: Vingegaard and Pogacar raced against each other at Monuments in the past - Il Lombardia and Liege, from 2020 to 2022. Pogacar's results are 3, 1, 1, and 1, while Vingegaard's are 84, 28, 14, and 16, respectively in the same races. But Vingegaard hasn't raced a Monument since 2022.RidesHills01-04-2025
- What, no Jay, Jonas. Remco, Primoz, etc.? Hope Cras doesn’t need an H this year.Mistermaumau01-04-2025
- Interesting, now’s the chance for all those who were grumpy about or against paying for subscriptions. But, if the pay is half decent one of girls from the women’s peloton might beat you to it ;-)Mistermaumau01-04-2025
- In those days the Tour was like Paris-Roubaix 3 weeks running :-)tMistermaumau01-04-2025
- The Dutch are a popular sporting target for foreign criticismMistermaumau01-04-2025
- Completely agree, and that’s in cases where the team even reaches the rider before he/she decides to get up by themself and start chasing. No protocol or rule will solve this perfectly, this is not a sport with a referee putting everything on hold whilst checks are made.Mistermaumau01-04-2025
- Is it just me or are the opinions of retired pros from certain parts of Northern Europe becoming increasingly Pythonesque? “In our day we had sandpaper chamois and barbed wire for bar tape when we rode Paris Roubaix, it used to be a proper race”……..I’m not even that big a Pogacar fan and I hope he does it just to shut them up.Jezla01-04-2025
- True, but then we've always known that real safety isn’t an objective, just enough for the facade not to crumble.Mistermaumau01-04-2025
- Oh, this sounds more spicy than I thought. I didn't watch the event.
KerisVroom01-04-2025