Paul Rouget, Media365: published on Thursday January 9, 2025 at 2:20 p.m.
For his Belgian compatriot Tom Boonen, Remco Evenepoel, who will miss the Giro and is mainly aiming for the Tour de France, must get less angry in the peloton to progress further.
Remco Evenepoel is better, thank you for him. Victim of a “frightening accident” last month during training in Oetingen, Flemish Brabant, where he crashed into the door of a Belgian post office car and escaped with a fractured rib , shoulder blade and hand, contusions to the lungs and a dislocated collarbone, with ligament tear, the double Olympic champion was operated on successfully.
But he should miss the Tour of Italy, scheduled from May 9 to June 1. His team, Soudal Quick-Step, announced that Mikel Landa would aim for the general classification, and a stage victory, during a Giro that Evenepoel will probably watch on television, he who made the Tour de France his big goal of the season.
“That’s sometimes the problem with Remco.”
Third in the Grande Boucle last year for his very first participation, the young Belgian (24 years old) hopes to do better this year. But for his compatriot Tom Boonen, who hung up his career in 2017, Evenepoel must be less nervous. Guest of the “Stamcafé Koers” podcast, the 2005 world champion first spoke of his own experience, on the Tour of Flanders 2009, when his former teammate Filippo Pozzato did not let go of him in order to prevent him from to win this Classic for the third time, which he finally did in 2012.
“That day, he really born me. I am paid to win, and so is he. And he can also be paid to make me lose. If he receives an order from his boss, I can understand it . I might have done the same thing,” admits Boonen, before talking about Evenepoel: “That’s the problem with Remco sometimes. No, they run to win. they want to win, you have to lose.” Will Evenepoel, who was particularly annoyed during the last World Cups, learn his lesson?
