Remco Evenepoel estimated on Wednesday that Tadej Pogacar was “the man to beat” in the 2024 Tour de France. According to the Belgian, the winner of the last Giro is even “almost inaccessible”.
Simple misinformation or real admission of helplessness? Announced among the list of contenders for the general classification of the Tour de France 2024, Remco Evenepoel estimated that Tadej Pogacar was the huge favorite for this edition of the Grande Boucle.
“I expect Tadej to be almost unattainable. What he showed at the Giro was impressive without him even having to dig deep into his reserves. He will be the man to beat at the Tour de France”, declared the Belgian during a videoconference three days before departure from Florence.
The time trial world champion will make his debut on the Tour, an event that he approaches with “impatience” and with ambitions for the general classification, even if he wants to “survive first” the first week.
Evenepoel wants to take the race “day by day”
“I hope to be ready from the start, not necessarily to win a stage, but to not lose time,” he said while his preparation was disrupted by a violent fall at the Tour of the Basque Country (clavicle and broken shoulder blades) and again recently by a slight cold.
“I was not able to participate in the Belgian Championships last weekend but I recovered well, everything is fine,” he said, considering himself to be in better shape than in Dauphiné – “a few percentages more” – that he had finished in seventh place.
“Stages 1 and 4 are very difficult. I hope to build on this first week to progress and reach my peak form during the second weekend as we approach the third week. This would be the ideal scenario”, – he pointed out.
“I’m going to approach the first week a little more cautiously. The Tour de France is three weeks, I have to save myself or it’s possible, that I stay a little calmer, that I look around me too to see how the race develops, especially since it’s my first Tour de France”, declared the Belgian with a generally very offensive temperament. “I will take the race day by day with as little stress as possible,” he concluded.
