"He may be an ex-teammate, but you don't do something like that" - Remco Evenepoel fumes at Tim Declercq following Paris-Nice team time-trial

Remco Evenepoel was confident pre-stage ahead of the stage 3 team time-trial at Paris-Nice 2024, eyeing up a move into the Maillot Jaune. Sadly for the Belgian, that's not quite how things turned out.

Although things started well with Soudal - Quick-Step quickest at the intermediate time check, a mid-stage rain shower drastically changed things. Post-stage, Evenepoel was also incredibly critical of Tim Declercq, former teammate of the Soudal - Quick-Step leader, now riding for Lidl-Trek. "He stayed ahead of us in a technical corner and didn't move out of the way. A thank you to him. That was really nasty," Evenepoel laments to Sporza. "Tim may have been an ex-teammate, but you don't do something like that. Did he do it on purpose? I hope not, but it is possible."

"We had a twenty second lead over UAE at the intermediate point and you can hardly lose any time on the way down. But it's simple: the rain has fallen and the wind has shifted," Evenepoel's disappointment continues. "There are some technical bends in the last kilometres. If you can take it at full speed, it saves four to five seconds per corner. It didn't go well for us. When you see that we outclass everyone in the first part of the time trial, it proves that our team is super good."

"Rain never plays to your advantage. Then you will lose time in the corners anyway, but not the amount of seconds we are now losing to the winner UAE. So we can't just blame it on the weather," adds sports director, Koen Pilgrim. "I have not yet been able to examine the men's data, so I cannot draw any firm conclusions yet."