Jasper Stuyven has criticised Remco Evenepoel for going public with his comments after the Belgian team disappointed at the Worlds and has also revealed his young team mate spoke out on TV yet was not present at a team debrief.
"He was aware, but didn't think it was necessary. I think that's a shame, especially because he thought it was necessary to say things on TV. That stuck with some of us," Stuyven said of Evenepoel being the only rider missing from the post-Worlds team debrief five days after the race.
"I think that Remco should sometimes be slowed down by his entourage," Stuyven added. "He still has to learn when he can and cannot say things. Also, a super-strong rider – which he certainly is – should realise that some things should remain internal."
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The comments were made in an end of season interview with Belgian newspaper Het Nieuwsblad, and they shed more light in the bad feeling in the Belgian camp after the Worlds in Leuven last month.
The Belgian team was under immense pressure on home roads and failed to win a medal. The situation was worsened by the way Evenepoel rode and especially due to his comments after the race.
Milan-San Remo winner Stuyven has disputed assertions by Evenepoel that he may have won the Worlds had he been given a chance, instead of the team sticking to its plan of riding for Van Aert.
Evenepoel rode very strongly in the latter stages of the race but only after joining early attacks and driving them along; something Van Aert said was not part of the plan. In the end, Van Aert did not make the final selection and Stuyven was Belgium's best finisher, just outside the medals in 4th place.
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Stuyven has now backed Van Aert in his post-Worlds comments; both riders now on one side of an apparently widening split in the Belgian camp with Evenepoel on the other.
Van Aert had said that Evenepoel's remarks after the Worlds - when he said he could have won himself - were "strange". Van Aert pointed out Evenepoel had embraced the team tactics in his comments before the race yet changed his mind afterwards.
Asked if Evenepoel could have won the Worlds, as he claimed himself, Stuyven said: "I do not think so. In the first place, he should have ridden a different race. What he did – ride full in the early break, gesticulate and be omnipresent until the final started – any (good rider) can do. But even if he had spared himself, he would never have ridden away from Alaphilippe."
Stuyven also revealed Van Aert apologised to him after the race; saying he should have told Stuyven sooner he was not on his best day so that the Milan San Remo champion could have put all of his effort into his own result.
"Wout and I are good friends," Stuyven said. "I saw that he felt bad after the World Championships. We were roommates at the World Championships. Three hours after the race, the two of us sat in the room for fifteen minutes.
"It started rather awkwardly; a lot of sighs, followed by 'God damn it'. Wout broke the ice: 'I feel the worst that I had not informed you sooner. A medal in Leuven would have been so nice for you'. I know that such situations happen. He experienced what every leader goes through, only it was with him during the race of the year.
"How often has a teammate come to me after an hour of race and ask: How are the legs? Then you have to answer with 'super', while you actually have no idea about it, but still want to radiate self-confidence to your team mates.
"You only know after a race whether you had super legs or not. A rider who says after every pain I'm not super , will never win a race. I fully understand what Wout did at the World Championships."
