"Some of the tactics from UAE Team Emirates were a bit strange" - Remco Evenepoel criticises rivals for allowing Buitrago and Plapp to gain time at Paris-Nice

Despite showing himself at the front of the race on numerous occasions during stage 4 at Paris-Nice 2024, Remco Evenepoel didn't really have much gained by the time he crossed the finish line.

Taking six bonus seconds at the intermediate sprint, the Belgian was narrowly beaten by Mattias Skjelmose in the race for 3rd and two more bonus seconds at the finish line. "I feel good. I actually thought I was third but I got shown that Luke Plapp was also still in front," he admits, with Santiago Buitrago, Plapp and Skjelmose being the stage podium. "I thought I got some seconds on the line but it's not a big deal."

"Overall it was a good stage for us," he continues. "Some of the tactics from UAE Team Emirates were a bit strange, letting the guys (Plapp and Buitrago ed.) go, especially if you've got four guys at the top of the classification. You could have taken one guy out and made him work like they started to do but in the end, Jay Vine stopped riding so that was a bit unfortunate for the whole bunch that Buitrago and Plapp, two dangerous guys could stay away."

In fact, it was actually Soudal - Quick-Step who did a lot of the work in the final couple of kilometres. "Ilan van Wilder was super strong," Evenepoel praises. "The others also did very well positioning me, keeping me out of trouble so I think overall it was a very good day for us."

"I think Buitrago is now 17 seconds ahead of me, Plapp is 30. That's not a nice present to go into the final weekend with so it's going to be very difficult," he concludes. "We're going to have to have a good think about the tactics and hopefully the other teams don't want to just let them go anymore. I don't want to blame anybody, it was just a bit unfortunate."