After his disappointing time trial in the Tour de France, Remco Evenepoel didn’t immediately have an explanation for why he lost nearly three minutes to Tadej Pogacar over just under 11 kilometers. But a day later, his coach looked at the bigger picture during Sporza, and at Soudal Quick-Step they also see that the preparation hasn’t always been perfect.
Coach Koen Pelgrim points to the Critérium du Dauphiné, which is now more than a month behind them. "It looked reasonably good there, but the last few days weren’t great either. After that, he had a tough period in training," Pelgrim explains. "He hadn’t properly recovered from the Dauphiné and struggled to complete his workouts. We had to adjust with extra rest. He had trouble handling the intensity, and so you know it wasn’t an ideal build-up."
Where Evenepoel was still able to make progress between the Dauphiné and the Tour last year, that wasn’t really possible this time. "Allergies affected him, and now he wasn’t really able to improve. We had to adjust and missed the training sessions we had hoped for. With the National Championships, things seemed to be turning around, and a few days ago he even jumped on the wheel with Tadej Pogacar and Jonas Vingegaard. It’s not like it’s really bad. He won the time trial, so there is some form there, but the consistency isn’t quite there," says Pelgrim.
And looking further back for the lack of consistency, Pelgrim adds: "There are weak days in between. What he missed during the winter, you can largely attribute this to. He’s missing a big part of the base he had last year."
Still, the coach doesn’t want to give up hope just yet. "Today is a new day. Two years ago he struggled in the Vuelta but won the next day. That’s not impossible, but mentally, it’s a blow you need to process. For us too, it’s a waiting game."
