The boys are back in town 😎 We are ready for one of the most important appointments of the season 🔥 Artwork: @BeelWout
"We cannot expect that Remco will immediately compete for the win" - Evenepoel's coach plays down expectations ahead of Criterium du Dauphine
CyclingWednesday, 29 May 2024 at 18:30
For the first time since his spring-ending crash at the Itzulia Basque Country earlier this year, Remco Evenepoel will return to racing at the Critérium du Dauphiné on the 2nd of June.
Given his lengthy spell out of action however, Evenepoel's coach, Koen Pelgrim is keen to play down the expectations surrounding his rider. "We cannot expect that Remco will immediately compete for the win," Pelgrim explains in conversation with Sporza. "If he lets it go for a day and is therefore unable to ride a classification, then so be it. The most important thing is that Remco improves over the course of the stage race. There are certainly still percentages to be gained."
On that crash earlier this year, Pelgrim admits he still feels slightly bitter. "It was a big disappointment. Remco had 3 goals in the spring: Paris-Nice, the Tour of the Basque Country and the classics (Amstel, Liège and possibly La Flèche Wallonne). If 2 of the 3 goals suddenly disappear, then That's a downer," he reflects rather ruefully.
Evenepoel also suffered mentally due to the crash. "He couldn't help but face reality, regain his strength and be happy that it wasn't worse. See how he narrowly missed a boulder and tree when he jumped over that ditch," Pelgrim recalls. "Remco was not immediately pain-free during his first training sessions. The time trial bike, sprinting and riding over potholes were things we had to avoid in the first weeks."
Evenepoel in action earlier this year
Despite the trials and tribulations of the last few months however, Pilgrim is pleased by the progress Evenepoel has shown in his recovery over recent weeks. "It's great to see how driven Remco is and how he is making progress," says coach Pelgrim. "Remco did training sessions of 6.5 to 7 hours in the Sierra, at an altitude of 5,000 meters."
"You cannot make up for those 3 weeks of inactivity with 3 weeks of training at altitude. Remco made a nice step forward during the altitude training. But if he had been able to ride at a level up to and including Liège-Bastogne-Liège with a week of rest afterwards, he would now have been further conditionally," he concludes with an eye towards the Tour de France. "We are confident that the conditional backlog will be eliminated by then."
Just in
Popular news
Latest comments
- good pointsmij24-11-2024
- Yes, please tell us based on your superior expertise about why JVs training and race schedule is wrong 🧐Crashjames24-11-2024
- I'd like to hear what the other side has to say.mij24-11-2024
- Rules are very different from country to country and evolve with time. At one point I couldn’t even give my son my nationality because being unmarried, you’d have to register at least 3 months before the birth, a time when many people know neither the name or sex, and actually, no-one even knows if the birth will take place. In England there is now a kid with the wrong sex on his birth certificate as mistakes (even if by an administration) can no longer be corrected. I just had a 3rd child, we discovered a bump on his head at 2 weeks that wasn’t there 24h before, we ended up at the police accused of child abuse and about to have him taken from us due to staff incompetence and inexperience. Luckily a pediatric neurosurgeon has now confirmed this is not so uncommon after natural childbirth without instruments but most medical employees aren’t informed of it so automatically accuse parents of negligence/lying whatever. We discovered an association that already helped over 1000 wrongly accused couples (just those who found the association in just one country). I almost got arrested in one country for forgery after trying to convert my driver’s license as they thought I must have tampered the dates to get it aged 17 which isn’t possible for them. I can’t access half official services because the online forms are not set up to accept foreign phone number as data but a number is obligatory. That’s just a quick start, anyone who’s ever had to move internationally will confirm, there’s very little that’s not done differently elsewhere than “at home” The world is full of bureaucratic shit destroying society.Mistermaumau23-11-2024
- Bruyneel is not a person you take honesty or moral advice from.Sweep23-11-2024
- you was so exhausted, ok, then why to ride third-class races immediately after the Tour? do a mix of rest, relax and soft-medium training in your family environment and after the birth of your baby, a month of full, intense training for the world championship! prestigious and suitable race for you (even MAS did well). Sometimes I don't understand Jonas's calendar.
maria2024202423-11-2024 - it’s just a brutal sport, and if you don’t believe in yourself — especially when you’re young — then what’s the point. i get it. that said, the voice of ultra competitive Mads Pedersen after last year’s Roubaix does echo in one’s ears. “mathieu was LEAGUES better than the rest of us… Yeah, i’d like to BELIEVE i could win this race one day, but after what mathieu just did i think that might be difficult…” and that’s MADS PEDERSEN. still, what can pithie do BUT believe?OCexile23-11-2024
- it’s just a brutal sport, and if you don’t believe in yourself — especially when you’re young — then what’s the point. i get it. that said, the voice of ultra competitive Mads Pedersen after last year’s Roubaix does echo in one’s ears. “mathieu was LEAGUES better than the rest of us… Yeah, i’d like to BELIEVE i could win this race one day, but after what mathieu just did i think that might be difficult…” and that’s MADS PEDERSEN. still, what can pithie do BUT believe?OCexile23-11-2024
- Compete with MVDP!!! None of the major races he was even close to MVDPabstractengineer23-11-2024
- Aids?Front24223-11-2024