"It was cold, I started the final climb shivering" - Remco Evenepoel explains why he faded on final climb of Tour de Suisse stage 3

Although Remco Evenepoel started the final climb of stage 3 at the 2023 Tour de Suisse in positive fashion, the Belgian faded towards the top although he did hold on to fourth place at his first summit finish since the Giro d'Italia.

Afterwards, Evenepoel spoke to Het Laatste Nieuws, looking to explain what went wrong. "It was cold, I started the final climb shivering," he explains. "Mattia Cattaneo and James Knox set a high pace. That was also the intention, we also had to try something to unload Stefan Küng. That worked too."

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When Evenepoel made his initial attack, only Felix Gall and Mattias Skjelmose were able to match him. Soon though the pair were up front on their own with Evenepoel dropped and struggling to hold onto the back of the second group on the road.

"There were two very strong ones who could follow me. I took a little too much work on my shoulders after that and paid that cash on the hardest part of the climb. There I felt that it is not great yet. Normally I should be able to add a cartridge to that, but that was not possible today," Evenepoel recaps. "However, I recovered somewhat after two minutes, it will still be some after-effects. I must be satisfied. I am not too far behind Skjelmose. Nothing is lost yet."

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