"Without that crash, I would’ve won the race" - Remco Evenepoel left rueing early fall at Amstel Gold Race 2025
CyclingSunday, 20 April 2025 at 17:45
Remco Evenepoel has hardly lost a beat after four months out through injury. Following a winning return to racing on Friday at Brabantse Pijl, the Soudal - Quick-Step leader put in a mammoth effort on Easter Sunday at the 2025 Amstel Gold Race, although he was ultimately forced to settle for 3rd spot on the podium.
Whilst he may not have won the race, Evenepoel did something that many have considered an impossibility over the last couple of years - he reeled back one of world champion Tadej Pogacar's trademark long-range solos. Pogacar had threatened to ride away to one of his typical solo masterpieces, but some powerful chasing by Evenepoel and Mattias Skjelmose did the impossible and pulled back the Slovenian. In the end though, it was Skjelmose that capitalised, sprinting to the win in a three-up fight for the line.
Afterwards, Evenepoel admitted he had mixed emotions having come so close to back to back victories on his return. “I’m standing here with mixed feelings,” Evenepoel began his post-race interview afterwards. “It’s good that we were finally able to reel Tadej back in. But I lost a lot of energy because of that crash. Without it, I would’ve won the race," he added, referring to an incident at just outside 100km to go that saw the Belgian hit the deck alongside Wout van Aert and Thibau Nys.
"If I’d been able to save that effort, I might’ve been able to attack again on the final ascent of the Cauberg. I’ll be back next year to win,” continues Evenepoel defiantly, admitting his final effort was far from perfect against Skjelmose and Pogacar. “In the sprint, I went a bit too early. If it comes down to a sprint in Liège, I won’t make the same mistake again. Still, I can’t really be disappointed, considering where I’m coming from.”
Read also
MATTIAS SKJELMOSE HAS JUST WON AMSTEL GOLD! 😲
— Cycling on TNT Sports (@cyclingontnt) April 20, 2025
The Dane beats Tadej Pogacar AND Remco Evenepoel in a thrilling sprint finish! pic.twitter.com/F7HL9uDgCK
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- For Pogi's first win against Jonas, he had a very subpar team relative to Jumbo. I don't think Jonas would have stood a chance if he had Pogi's team that year.Veganpotter05-05-2025
- He descended very well at the TdF last year after the first couple stages with technical descents.Veganpotter05-05-2025
- The funny thing about all of this is that Pogi can(that doesn't mean he definitely will) win the TdF while it's only one of many goals. Jonas is fully focused on the TdF. Yes, he does other races but they're solely in preparation for the TdF. Jonas is great, but much of the reason he has a fighters chance is that Pogi isn't a rider that's fully focused on stage races.Veganpotter05-05-2025
- Yates- when he is on - is pretty awesome to watch.
ScottG05-05-2025 - Jonas is afraid of crashing. That's not easy to shake. I think that fear has only gotten worse over the years.ScottG05-05-2025
- Healy will also be a contender in the hilly classics. That's it though.ScottG05-05-2025
- It remains a team sport, and either teams or injuries have determined the outcomes since 2022. In '22, UAE lost many team members due to covid, earlier than Jumbo Visma did, and that left Pogacar unprotected. In '23, Pogacar was injured at Liege, and that affected his training. In '24, Vingegaard was injured, Kuss and van Aert were a shadow of their '22 selves, and Roglic was gone from the team. So the question is, can Yates, Almeida, Novak, and the rest protect Pogacar, and will Kuss and the rest show up as they need to? Sure, it's the last climb that pits the two superstars against each other, and Pogacar (as we've seen with van der Poel) doesn't always win when he's got a challenger there. This year, if Vingegaard's concussion hasn't affected things too much, I think it will come down to the teams they bring.RidesHills05-05-2025
- I wonder if they meant "uphill sprinting like Roglic is known for." Probably not, but maybe?RidesHills05-05-2025
- Yates-Ayuso cage match? Could be interesting.mobk05-05-2025
- I don't know, maybe it's true when Blythe says "When Jonas is in top form, Tadej has never beaten him", but I think he should watch his mouth a bit.Ride197405-05-2025
Remco making stupid crass coments again. I would have won myself if i had been racing lol. As to putting Remco at Pogs level at grand tours he is no where near in the high mountains. He won the Vuelta yes good result but there was no big hitters there . Needs to mature up quite a bit and classics are no where same as grand tours.
People were saying stuff like that years ago but in the meantime he’s proved himself often enough. Do you reallythink he’s going to stop working and improving until he can match the best? It’s just a matter of time. Once he notices the mountains are costing him the title, he’ll start making plans how to overcome that, for now he is still too cocky to understand you improve most by accepting you have a weakness and that’s what you should work on most.
Crash or not to get stuck on the front in the lead up to the line and then try to blow Pocagar and Skjelmose off from the front, in the sprint was a big mistake. He went far too soon and ran out of legs. A lot of sprints are won from the front, but a lot more are lost by doing that. He must have thought he had the legs but it backfired on him.
It’s the kind of thing Tadej would have tried too ;-) one of the reasons I think they won’t get along very long, too much alike in some aspects.
I guess most of us like Remco, but he's got a habit of making cocky statements. He might be right by his claim, but it doesn't do him any good.
He started improving but maybe recovering from the crash made him retreat back to his old ways ;-) Nothing a few good wins won’t solve. In any case, he’s certainly not lost much of. his drive.
Instead of giving credit to Skjelmose both Evenepoel and Pogacar whine about crash and headwind.. hopefully Mattias will take it to them again at Flèche and Liège..
You half still expect it from Remco but Tadej seems to have changed lately, some of his comments are just off compared to his previous nice guy style. I don’t know if he feels less strong or more vulnerable, if something around him has changed, the crashes have affected his thinking, he can’t deal well with losing or whether he is just worried his macrocycle from last year is coming to an end but something’s different about him at the moment. Also, I don’t think he and Remco will ever really be buddies and it won’t take much for respect between the two to die. The good news is, aren’t we spoiled lately, when is the last time there were so many top level competitors in both one day and stage races? And the list should continue growing a few more years coz’ there aren’t many about to stop or losing form yet.
I think one has to look at their actions across the finish line. Tadej gave Skjelmose a pat, whereas Remco was in anguish, understandably having pulled Skjelmose for most of the time. I don't think Tadej changes much. He can make some comments which are a bit off especially during TdF, but nothing as bad as Remco.
This will be the turning point in history when people will stop denying Remco is able to compete on Tadej’s level, regularly.