Mario Cipollini is impressed by Remco Evenepoel's Tour: "In the next stages he could try what seems impossible"
Cycling
Mario Cipollini was never a man for the overall standings, but that doesn't mean he wouldn't follow the battle for the Tour de France triumph with any less passion than anyone else. In particular, he is impressed by Remco Evenepoel. The Belgian has already won a Vuelta in 2022, but there was always a shadow of doubt about whether he could compete against the truly best in the business.
"Great and unexpected," Cipollini doesn't scrimp on superlatives when speaking about Remco Evenepoel to Tuttobici. "His Giro a year ago had cooled us a bit. But now he is riding an incredibly beautiful Tour. He won the individual time trial, he will take home the white jersey and the podium. With those two monsters of opponents that is no small thing."
On contrary, Cipollini's Italy is still looking for a successor to grand tour champions Vincenzo Nibali and Fabio Aru. But with little success. Their best card in the standings is Giulio Ciccone in 8th place, more than 17 minutes behind Pogacar. "Imagine if we had a rider like that in Italy. His problem was perhaps the enormous expectations that were and are on him. It seems that every race he has to win. Remco is having an extraordinary career."
With an attack on the final climb to SuperDévoluy, he managed to drop Pogacar and Vingegaard and gained a bit of the time he's been losing in recent stages back. "He has shown once again that he has character and condition. In the next stages he could try what seems impossible," Cipollini refers to an attack of Jonas Vingegaard's second spot overall.
Can we even expect anything more from the Dane, than what he has already showed in the first two weeks? Third weeks used to be his domain, after all. "He seemed to be growing a lot, then, perhaps due to the lack of an adequate base, this growth did not materialize. As if it had a rebound effect. Then with the error on Sunday, he and Visma took a blow to their morale and legs."
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Ondrej ZhasilCycling Journalist
Ondřej Zhasil is a cycling journalist at CyclingUpToDate and has been part of the team since 2023. He is based in Ostrava, the third-largest city in the Czech Republic, and covers professional cycling across the main UCI competitions, including the Tour de France, the Giro d’Italia, and La Vuelta a España. A key focus of his work is startlist analysis and pre-race coverage, where he examines team selections, rider line-ups, and tactical scenarios ahead of major events.
Alongside WorldTour coverage, Ondřej has developed specific expertise in junior cycling and in racing across East Asia, including competitions in China and Japan. He also maintains a broad working knowledge of other disciplines and levels, including cyclocross, while continuing to expand his understanding of mountain bike racing.
Ondřej holds a bachelor’s degree in Mathematics and Physics, which supports his analytical, data-driven approach to performance and race analysis. In his reporting, he regularly uses ProCyclingStats for results, statistics, and historical context. He places strong emphasis on careful sourcing, editorial accuracy, and updating articles promptly when new, verified information becomes available.
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- That's an excellent point. It's interesting that Vader came to that realization only after he learned that his contract wasn't going to be renewed.
santiagobenites14-11-2026 - Indeed! A reluctant gift maybe. Even more reluctant gift from Roglic! Tho I can’t see that Rog would have beaten Ving anyway.Lozza14-11-2026
- That really nasty crash in 2022 Liege must have played a big part - broken ribs, pneumothorax. You only have to look at his points tallies pre and post.Lozza14-11-2026
- Yeah, good luck getting tv and race organisers like ASO etc to part with their cash!Lozza14-11-2026
- 36 and Ineos have bought a rider on the downward slope. Bring back Dave and Rob who could manage the team. How are Ineos going to win a grand tour with people past their sell by date.paultryan200214-11-2026
- Mmmm would he be making these comments when he was on the richest team when riding. I think not i suspect. If we want money put into the sport we need sponsors who are prepared to put the money in. No disrespect but his team are 2nd or 3rd div in football terms with riders over the hill or 2nd string riders. If i was a sponsor i would be looking at what publicity am i getting back and Tudor really are just making up the numbers really.paultryan200214-11-2026
- I see (elsewhere) that Alaphilippe had more to say than what got relayed in this stub. Me: he was very good early but his latter third trajectory was the pits. His old boss did what he could (huffed and puffed) but Julian couldn't get his greatness back. Sometimes I wonder if crashes that didn't look like much changed the course of the rider.flyer14-11-2026
- I wouldn't classify it as a gift because the nasty consequences of taking it from Sepp would have been great and would persist and he knew it.flyer14-11-2026
- Ok. Tratnik's good and Red Bull's better so Tratnik may get what he wants.flyer14-11-2026
- Ok. So just saying he wasn't enjoying racing anymore is some kind of explanation? Me saying I don't enjoy his explanation is more explaining than he did.flyer14-11-2026
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Went on the attack ✅ Fortified third on the GC ✅ Extended lead in the youth standings ✅ Excellent day for @EvenepoelRemco at the #TDF2024 🙌
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