Remco Evenepoel eyes yellow jersey at the Tour de France and believes Tadej Pogacar will eventually lose dominance: "There will definitely come a day that this will no longer be the case"
Cycling
Remco Evenepoel is currently recovering from serious injuries suffered a few weeks ago in a training accident when he collided against a van whose door was opening. It is a dent in his preparation for the 2025 season but doesn't put his Tour de France at risk. He will aim for the yellow jersey on the first week of the Grand Boucle next year and believes one day the Slovenian will feel the pressure and it could give way to rivals to take advantage of.
The first week of the Tour is packed with explosive stages and a long-ish time-trial where he should be a prime contender for the victory. This is a key day for his season: "Winning the time trial in stage 5 is absolutely the most important goal of the Tour de France. We know that a yellow jersey is probably up for grabs there," Evenepoel said in words to Eurosport. "I think my first goal is not to lose any stupid time in the first four stages and then to take the yellow in the fifth stage. After that, we will take it day by day like in the Vuelta of 2022".
He had said it previously, and is very keen on his specific goal, that comes before all others at the Tour for the moment. "The yellow jersey would be nice. I have to wear it at least once. The time trial is flat and not technical at all. I think it's a time trial that suits me well and I have to aim for the highest possible to create a big gap".
Evenepoel may or may not race the Giro d'Italia, but the injury makes the double unlikely. We know by now that this is Primoz Roglic's calendar choice, but it does not mean we will see any other big GC rider replicate it - specially one as young as the Soudal - Quick-Step leader.
Evenepoel believes he could've also done a slightly better Tour if he hadn't suffered injuries in the crash at Itzulia Basque Country last spring. "I couldn't ride my bike for three weeks. The collarbone itself was fine, but especially the shoulder blade was damaged. I only had two months to get in top shape and that was very rushed. I hope I have a better preparation this year. Without that crash I probably could have finished five or six minutes behind Pogacar".
To win the Tour, in normal circumstances, is a very hard scenario to imagine for him, he admits: "It is not that I am a bad climber and in most cases I came third at the top. That shows that the capacity to climb like Vingegaard and Pogacar is there. Of course it is up to me to work on that even more and not to fall before the Tour in order to have the smoothest possible preparation". However that is if everything goes according to plan for Tadej Pogacar and Jonas Vingegaard.
Over the past two seasons, both have had a run-up to the Tour affected by injuries. "This year we did not see a single moment that Pogacar got nervous, because he was above all the other riders. There will definitely come a day that this will no longer be the case. Hopefully that will be next year," Evenepoel says, beginning the psychological battle for the yellow jersey with half a year to the Grand Depart in Lille.
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