"One moment he's defeated, and he's a whining child who's crying" - Remco Evenepoel blasted by Dutch pundit

Remco Evenepoel is one of the most emotional riders in the modern peloton and that was truly visible during this Sunday's World Championships road race in Kigali. The time-trial World Champion had chances of conquering another rainbow jersey last Sunday, but lost it due to childish behaviours according to Thijs Zonneveld.

“He fought hard, but mainly against himself. That guy is a walking soap opera. You get good times and bad times in a single race. All emotions come into play," Zonneveld argued in the In de Waaier podcast. Early in the race the Olympic Champion was involved in an amusing moment in a portable bathroom, but once the action really began, there was truly no lack of big moments for hours to come.

"First he becomes world champion (in the individual time-trial, ed.), then he puts his entire team in the lead, and then he drops from Pogacar's wheel to 40th place in one kilometer on Mount Kigali...” That moment on the course's main climb proved key to the outcome of the race as Pogacar dropped the Belgian. Later he would see both Juan Ayuso and Isaac del Toro crack, and was left alone with the strongest men behind chasing already a minute down.

Evenepoel moved back in the peloton, got dropped by the main chasing group and then switched bikes. He argued the saddle had lost height, and then upon changing bikes he believed the angle of the saddle in the second bike was wrong, making him stop again, but this time losing around 45 seconds in one of the worst-timed bike exchanges possible.

This one was also preventable. "I also find his reaction striking," Zonneveld argues. "I think he's just thinking 'fuck you'. He started complaining that his bike wasn't right. The mechanic says he checked everything. He said he didn't know what was wrong with the bike. That may be true, but the way Evenepoel handled it..."

It was a moment of desperation and anger. With no race radios, the Belgian car was quite behind Evenepoel's group, and the badly-timed bike exchange was made worst by the long wait.

"In the juniors, you learn to keep riding as long as possible. He just wasn't covering any distance. Evenepoel is doing what every junior knows you shouldn't do... He stops and waits. With arm gestures again, that spoiled boy. It's also unfair to the mechanic.“

Zonneveld believes that Evenepoel was mentally struggling and did not know what the right course of action was in those key minutes of the race where Pogacar got away. "It's the only effort that lasts longer than fifteen minutes; on a real climb, he gets dropped. Then he looks at his equipment and shifts the blame. Then he recovers and goes back to riding at the front. It's almost bipolar".

The Dutch pundit goes as far as blasting the Olympic champion over behaviour that he has seen in the past. "One moment he's defeated, and he's a whining child who's crying. He was just short of stamping his feet on the side of the road. Then he gets back on his bike, gets fired up, and crushes the whole group".

Evenepoel, despite all of the mishaps, returned to the group that were ahead of him, and worked together with - and dropped - everyone else except for Tadej Pogacar. With the gap at the finish line standing at 1:28, it is understandable why disappointment reigned, and why it was viable that the Belgian could've potentially caught up with Pogacar if it weren't for all the bikes issues.

“Then he's the only one who can keep Pogacar somewhat under control. Every time the pressure gets high, this kind of thing happens, and he acts like a toddler," Zonneveld concluded. "As a teammate and mechanic, I would occasionally be completely fed up with him. He has a problem with setbacks, but can subsequently overcome them.”