The day after the Tour of Flanders, the Tour of the Basque Country started in Spain where Remco Evenepoel will compete against Jonas Vingegaard and Primoz Roglic, among others. However, the Soudal Quick-Step rider started on a false note.
Own fault
After all, Evenepoel crashed quite badly in the opening time trial. That after only 200 meters. He looks for explanations to HLN. “On the TV images there appears to be something like a black grid. Did I move away from that? Or did something else make that passage extra slippery? My hands and arms were certainly black with grease.”
“Perhaps I threw myself a bit too hard and ‘hanged’ too diagonally. And so it was my own fault,” Evenepoel strikes mea culpa. “It happened so quickly that I didn’t really realize what exactly was happening. Of course you want to go through the bends as quickly as possible in those barely ten kilometers. But I don’t think I took too many risks or made a steering error.”
Nothing lost
And that causes frustration, but only in itself. No accusing fingers towards the organization or the like. “Nah. Why would I? This was a very nice time trial. I certainly wouldn’t dare call it too dangerous.”
“Okay, easier options could be taken here and there. But that’s not up to me to decide, I’m not the course designer. As a rider you mainly take risks yourself. And then that can have consequences.”
Evenepoel is not worried about the general classification yet. “There are still five days left, right? (laugh) I’m very satisfied with my overall feeling. I could have left the cup hanging and lost a minute. But all in all I still rode a great time trial. I can continue with that.”
