After stage 2, Tadej Pogacar had admitted to
Remco Evenepoel that he made an attempt to 'give' the yellow jersey away but that this did not happen. Into stage 3 there was a lot of debate on whether Richard Carapaz and Remco Evenepoel would try to go for the yellow jersey and the Ecuadorian succeeded whilst Pogacar did not try to keep it. Evenepoel however was criticized over a gesture he did to one of Carapaz' teammates.
Whilst the Olympic Champion went all-out in the final sprint to finish in 14th place, the other riders that entered the stage with the same time (Pogacar, Evenepoel and Jonas Vingegaard) did not make an effort to finish high on the stage, which would determine who'd have the race lead at the end of the day. Pogacar and Evenepoel calmly rode to the finish line together in 38th and 40th spots after a mass crash split the peloton in the final kilometers, and Evenepoel made a gesture towards Carapaz' teammate
Ben Healy who sprinted to the finish line to overtake the previous two riders - in order to give Carapaz a small boost in his chances of taking the yellow jersey.
Not everyone was a fan of Evenepoel's gesture: “I wanted to say something about that. Of course there was a battle in the sprint about who would take the yellow jersey and Carapaz really went for it, which they did really well," Thijs Zonneveld said in the 'Het Wiel' podcast. "Evenepoel and Pogacar came in around forty place, with Evenepoel very ostentatiously behind Pogacar. Like: I'm not going to pass you, mate.” Obviously, there was no interest in any of the riders besides Carapaz to carry the yellow jersey into stage 4, so as to not carry the responsibility of working into a difficult stage this early in the race.
“I think it's great that Evenepoel is something different and dares to say things that others don't dare. But what's really bad is when riders make fun of other riders. I can't stand that," Zonneveld says. "As a teammate of Carapaz, Healy just passed Evenepoel and Pogacar, but Evenepoel made it clear with a gesture like: look at him.”
The Dutch analyst believes this was direct mocking the Irish rider's intentions: “So that they (Evenepoel and Pogacar, ed.) could laugh about it together. However, he didn’t see at all that Evenepoel was trying to bully, because that’s what it was: bullying. And that was stupid, because Healy did something very smart: by putting himself in between, there was an extra person between Carapaz and Evenepoel and Pogacar.”
Whilst being a minimal event in the big picture of the day, it certainly struck a chord on Zonneveld who saw no reason for such action: “But even if he sprints for 37th place, he has every right to do so. I think that’s so mediocre, riders who deprive other riders of the opportunity to ride a race. It was a small moment, but I thought it was very telling, nasty and annoying. This is just bullying, and that’s bad.”
