"That is b*llshit" - Former Belgian national coach quashes theory Remco Evenepoel's crash-enforced rest could benefit Tour de France chances

Remco Evenepoel's plans for 2025 were thrown into disarray last month as the Belgian got caught up in a disastrous training crash. The comments from the Soudal - Quick-Step camp to date have remained relatively positive, although former Belgian national coach Sven Vanthourenhout, who knows Evenepoel very well, struggles to see why.

"He is facing a difficult task, but I know who he is and the toughness he has in him," analyses Vanthourenhout for Sporza, drawing comparisons between Evenepoel and another of his Belgian compatriots. "It will be fine again, right? Remco will surprise us again sooner or later and blow us away. But I make the comparison with Wout van Aert. They are in a similar position: it is a matter of trial and error."

The theory doing the rounds that Evenepoel's extended winter rest could actually be a benefit for the double Olympic champion when looking to this summer's Tour de France, does not hold water with Vanthourenhout though. "You hear those clichés that athletes come out stronger from this, but that is - if I may say so - bullshit," he says resoundingly. "Remco and Wout could both have been much further in their careers if they had not experienced all this."

"You stay off the bike for 2 to 3 months and you put your energy into other things. That doesn't make you any better. It's that simple," adds the former Belgian national coach. "Of course they have the ability to put things into perspective. Things can go wrong in life, but as an athlete you can better miss something like that."

"In the meantime he loses a few months and he could have ticked off Liège or other classics. Now you are calculating again in terms of your recovery. There will be another highlight, but the months before that have been deleted and his palmares could have been more extensive. Also look at Van Aert, who has already missed Flanders and Roubaix a few times," Vanthourenhout continues. "But don't forget the human side either. When I saw Wout lying in the Vuelta after his fall, I thought: 'This is not one time too many, is it?' You don't just recover from a cold, you know. You always come back from nothing. You have to work hard for months to hopefully get back to that level. The riders take that with them, the outside world doesn't see that. Because they are seen as cycling gods with victories."

And with a big improvement needed to challenge Pogacar, Evenepoel could be now found wanting come the 2025 Tour de France. "The competitors have trained in recent months, but Remco has yet to start. But let me be clear: if he finishes 2nd or 3rd in Paris in less than 9 minutes, that will be fantastic for the future. He knows that himself," Vanthourenhout concludes.