"The best cyclist in the world" - Remco Evenepoel with no answer to Tadej Pogacar's brutal triumph in Combloux

Remco Evenepoel began the sixth day of the Criterium du Dauphiné in the race lead and with a brilliant race form wise. He suffered a crash 24 hours before, but still showed good legs on the climb to Combloux. Only, this was not enough to hold on to the yellow jersey or the podium, against the strongest competition he could possible face.

"I felt great there," Evenepoel said in an interview to VTM Nieuws regarding the penultimate climb of the day, where he was in the wheels of Tadej Pogacar and Jonas Vingegaard after the attacks of Sepp Kuss and Florian Lipowitz. The Belgian kept his powder dry for the final ascent, but admits the accumulation of the efforts may have cost him. 

"Maybe I hadn't recovered enough from the efforts on that penultimate climb. They also started that last climb as if the finish was after two kilometers," the Belgian states. He was unable to keep the pace, as did everyone except for Jonas Vingegaard upon UAE's pace.

He then collaborated with Florian Lipowitz, until the German launched his own attack after the summit of the Côte de Domancy. Then, so did Matteo Jorgenson. “I was getting more and more quiet with every kilometre. Was it the aftermath of the fall, a bad day".

To the World Champion, there was simply no response. “Pogacar was superior again. He has shown once again that he is the best cyclist in the world. In the end, everyone except him exploded, including Vingegaard.”

But Evenepoel is not lowering his spirits, and will continue to fight for a top result in this race. He sits fourth in the GC ahead of the queen stage with a disadvantage of 1:22 minutes to Pogacar but a more manageable gap to Jonas Vingegaard and Florian Lipowitz, still within reach. “Tomorrow is a new day, with perhaps different legs," he concluded.