Remco Evenepoel got through the gravel stage of the 2024 Tour de France unscathed and also attacked during the stage.
However, the Belgian was unhappy with Jonas Vingegaard’s strategy and the Dane’s refuse to collaborate in a breakaway that was formed at some point by the first 3 riders of the general classification.
“I think Tadej and I were not happy with it because maybe the whole Tour could have been decided today,” Evenepoel said after the stage.
“We have to accept race tactics and race situations, but sometimes you also need the balls to race, and unfortunately maybe Jonas didn’t have them today. But it’s no problem – the race is still very long, and I totally accept the reasons why he didn’t pull, why he didn’t race.
“Of course, Tadej and I both like to attack pretty far away from the finish, so we wanted to continue. Jonas is sometimes a bit more defensive, but we have to accept it. He will have all the good reasons to have raced like this, so I also completely understand why.”
“I knew that it was one of the last hard sections on the gravel and I just wanted to go for it,” Evenepoel said. “It was like a cross-tailwind so a very fast sector. In the end, if you see the gap that we had, we had straight away 30-40 seconds after that sector.
“So, like I said, if we came to the front group and we would take turns all together, I think the race could have been decided there. But like they also said, it’s race situations and race tactics, and we have to accept that.”
