Having been touted as a potential winner of the Giro d’Italia despite not having raced for eight months before the race began, Remco Evenepoel’s troubles were compounded today when he lost a huge amount of time.
The 21-year-old Belgian, who struggled over the gravel on
stage 11, was dropped by the favourites on stage 16 today before the final
climb of Passo Giau had even begun with 28km to go.
And by the finish line in Cortina
d'Ampezzo, at the end of the shortened 153km stage, he had lost 24:05 to stage
winner and race leader Egan Bernal (Ineos Grenadiers).
Evenepoel was back in 53rd place today
and has dropped 12 places in the general classification to 19th. He said after
the stage that his preparation was not what it needed to be; a frank admission
that the ambitious targets he and his team had set were simply not achievable.
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“With this weather, with everything; my body just isn’t ready for this and I need more time to get used to this weather again and all the racing,” he said of a race that has been a new experience for him as he has been under extreme pressure.
“Yeah, my base is not big enough to race three weeks on a very high level. So we will change tactics for the last week.”
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Asked how the
stage had gone for him today, he said: "It's not so good that I've
lost 20 to 25 minutes. Just an off day, we knew that this could happen. In the
end, I've only been training two months towards this Giro, which is not enough
to be 100 per cent race-ready.
"But that's life. There's one more week to go. We did a really good stage with João (Almeida) today, so that's the most important for today. Tomorrow is the rest day. We'll enjoy it together, take some good rest and try to make the best of it in the last week.”
When reporters asked him if he might leave the race now
rather than continue for the final week he said he planned to stay on and
complete his first Grand Tour.
"We never said I was going to leave, I never said I
was going to leave. If I don’t feel that I can’t finish so I'm just going to
end the Giro, why not?"
Asked if his Deceuninck-QuickStep recognised that he was
not in great form and that his team mate João Almeida should be given his chance to ride for himself today, Evenepoel
confirmed that was the case.
“We immediately
said in this morning’s meeting that João had a free role, he could do what he wanted and I just had to see how
I felt.”
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