For the first time on the mountains in this Tour de France, Remco Evenepoel took some time on Tadej Pogacar and Jonas Vingegaard at the end of stage 17.
“I felt Vingegaard was a bit on the limit,” Evenepoel said. “When Tadej attacked, I was the only one more or less close. I’m not going to say I slowed because I rode away from Jonas after that. But I couldn’t get back on the wheel, I had just reacted too late.”
“I still felt good, and I still had a teammate in front,” said Evenepoel. “They shouted to me in the earpiece, ‘If it slows down at the foot of the final climb, then go straight away.’ That’s what I did. And Jan dropped me off in the last kilometre, as I had asked.”
“In the end, it’s 10 seconds or so [on Pogacar and Vingegaard], and that’s all good. But the fact that the gap to the guys behind me on GC was 2:30 is even better.”
“Maybe I should have jumped a bit more aggressively, but it’s all new to me. I didn’t dare to go all-in on a 4km uphill finish,” said Evenepoel.
“I think Tadej could have reacted to me, but he left Visma-Lease a Bike do the work”.
“That could be to my advantage, but we will mainly stick to our basic plan, which is a place on the podium and the white jersey. Maybe there is also a stage win, although everything I can show and experience here is a bonus.”
