"They have more experience than me" - Remco Evenepoel learns tough Tour de France lesson on stage 14 losing time to Tadej Pogacar and Jonas Vingegaard

Remco Evenepoel has been incredibly impressive at the 2024 Tour de France, proving many people wrong with his performances. On stage 14 however, the Belgian showed his first real sign of weakness, losing considerable time to Tadej Pogacar and Jonas Vingegaard, dropping from 2nd to 3rd in the general classification.

"I did what I could. When Tadej attacked, I was a bit stuck behind Jorgenson and also my own teammate Mikel Landa, I couldn't react quite quickly enough," the Soudal - Quick-Step leader, who has already managed to claim a stage win on Tour de France debut, reflects in his post-stage interview. "But in any case it was really the rider who deserved the stage victory who won today."

Whilst as he mentioned, Evenepoel was a little slow to react to Pogacar's initial attack, the Belgian was soon on the wheel of Jonas Vingegaard, chasing down the Maillot Jaune. "I tried to follow Jonas, I stayed with him a little but he rode faster and faster and I was dropped, the pace was very high," he explains of that situation. "But ultimately at the finish I only lost around thirty seconds behind Jonas. I can consider myself lucky, because I am 3rd in the stage and I gained time over those behind me."

The podium does indeed seem like a very realistic proposition for Evenepoel now, especially if he continues to climb better than the likes of Carlos Rodriguez among others. "The 4th rider is 4 minutes behind me, that’s a great lead. About Tadej and Jonas, they have more experience and more power than me. I will continue to fight for the podium," Evenepoel concludes. "With Jonas, you never know, he is not that far away and must have also felt that Tadej was too strong, so he will perhaps go on the defensive and there will be some moves for us to make.”