"It can even be advantageous to appear fresher at the Tour" - Dutch analysts look for positives in Remco Evenepoel's winter crash

Remco Evenepoel's winter preparation for the 2025 season has not gone entirely to plan. Rather than stepping things up through December, the Belgian has been handed a spell of up to eight weeks off-bike following a crash involving a BPost van on a training ride.

"It's a huge disappointment that you can't cycle outside for all of December," Eurosport commentator Jeroen Vanbelleghem analyses on the latest episode of the Kop over Kop podcast. "He had just started his preparation and then suddenly that fall. It's now especially important for him to get some rest and not return too quickly."

"It is a matter of changing things around, regrouping and going back to the drawing board," agrees Vanbelleghem colleague Bobbie Traksel, noting how, although there is never a good time for a crash, doing so in early December does at least mean Evenepoel can retain hope for his main goals of the coming season. "It is better to have this in December than in early January."

Vanbelleghem too can see the positives in Evenepoel's crash, perhaps even the possibility of Soudal - Quick-Step using it as an advantage by the time the Tour de France rolls around next summer. "Milano-Sanremo is no longer possible, but Liège-Bastogne-Liège is still possible," he explains. "The Tour is certainly no problem. It can even be advantageous to appear fresher at the start. Then he can lay the foundation in February."