Unfortunately, @EvenepoelRemco will not be able to defend his road race title at the Belgian National Championships this Sunday, due to him having a cold. Read more about it, here: soudal-quickstepteam.com/en/news/6605/s… Photo: @GettySport
Patrick Lefevere aware of Remco Evenepoel's illness at Dauphine: "We feared a Giro scenario"
CyclingSunday, 23 June 2024 at 10:04
Remco Evenepoel is currently ill and will skip the Belgian national championships as a result, but he was also under the weather earlier this month at the Criterium du Dauphiné. Patrick Lefevere tells that the team feared another badly-timed Covid-19 positive.
"In the meantime, I can reveal something: Remco also did not feel one hundred percent physically in the Dauphiné. He had a sore throat, to the extent that we feared a Giro scenario," the manager of Soudal - Quick-Step said in his weekly Het Nieuwsblad column. "He also looked tired after that first mountain stage, a bit like after the time trial in the Giro. He has been tested many times, but fortunately always negative."
Evenepoel rode to a strong victory in the race's hilly time-trial but was not at the same level when it came to the mountains. A controlled race without going above the limit at any time, but the Belgian simply did not have the pace of the riders ahead and descended to seventh in the overall classification. With several weeks left to the Tour and an altitude training camp still ahead however, there wasn't too much concern for the time-trial World Champion.
"Remco is allergic to pollen and house dust mites. And I don't have to explain it to anyone here at the table," he says, before criticizing the accomodation in France: "Hotels where you are not allowed to look under your bed or you will not sleep anymore. If you drop your suitcase, the dust will fly up." However, Lefevere also believes that weight continues to be a small problem within the team:
"Remco has the disadvantage that you can see that immediately in his face. That's about one kilo, but uphill that plays a role of course," he says. "Weight has become so crucial, even in the spring. In April, after the spring, we had a big evaluation meeting with everyone from the staff present. Nobody dares to talk about it then, but I was the last to say: I think that, that and that were too heavy. True or not?' I then hear: 'Two kilos, two kilos and four kilos'. You see, the old man can still see it. Who was it about? I won't say. Sometimes cycling is not difficult of course. Our doctor Yvan Vanmol has been saying that his entire career: fat doesn't ride fast."
He also brought up the question of possibly taking the in-form Tim Merlier to the Tour, after he won three stages at the Giro d'Italia and recently beat Jasper Philipsen twice at the Baloise Belgium Tour. This Sunday's road race in Belgium could prove decisive for the selection, but Lefevere is in favour of having a stage hunter in the team.
"That is the trend with [overall] classification teams. No one is taking a sprinter anymore. I talked about it within the team this morning. I understand the logic of going all out for the classification, but that is against my nature," he says. "If we haven't won a stage in the first week of the Tour, I will be annoyed. And I will say it quickly myself: even more annoying than usual."
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- First of all, I hope now all is ok with your baby!. Yeah, about to not accept foreign phone number is a big problem also for me. I have economic interests in 2 countries, I think that all can be ok with my Italian number... but NO! The world is globalized but not for bureaucracies.
maria2024202424-11-2024 - First of all, calm, this is a site to share point of views, doubts, intuitions about cycling. Let's think about it: if someone tells you that he is very tired but is going to run unimportant races immediately, ignoring a world championship much further away in time that would give him the opportunity to rest, there is something very contradictory. Maybe it is fair, but as a simple spectator I (and many others) do not understand it, it does not make sense.maria2024202424-11-2024
- I think the other side has said plenty, given comments about her reputation like what Renz said above. Perhaps this is her chance to speak up against that reputation? I have no idea but her comments seem pretty human, even if each person has their own version of the story.RidesHills24-11-2024
- Give her a team built around her with no competing leaders, like Pogacar has at UAE or Vingegaard has at Visma (seeing how Roglic left), and I wonder how Vollering would do. She’s already so good, and a team dedicated to her could make her even better.RidesHills24-11-2024
- Those injuries, an ability to manage pain and push himself, probably a load of TUEs to help him get back from an awful moment, and competing that hard without the long exercise base that was the norm - no wonder he was exhausted. We’ve now had two consecutive seasons of the second place rider having an injury that interrupts training, and it shows to what level their bodies are tuned for the insane task of winning the Tour. I certainly hope both (and their teams!) are healthy next year. It would be a first, after 4 years.RidesHills24-11-2024
- Winners seem to be like this. Win or lose, it is always on to the next thing. They don’t celebrate the big win, they don’t worry about the painful loss. They move on. It’s an amazing skill. But to be able to ride (and win) while not being able to walk? That’s a level of pain management that boggles my mind. Of course they have it, given what they put their bodies through, but it’s just crazy.RidesHills24-11-2024
- Poor Demi. But she behaves the same way when riding for the national team. Bring me my tiny violin.Renz24-11-2024
- good pointsmij24-11-2024
- Yes, please tell us based on your superior expertise about why JVs training and race schedule is wrong 🧐Crashjames24-11-2024
- I'd like to hear what the other side has to say.mij24-11-2024