Wout van Aert has
very firmly pushed back at Remco Evenepoel after the young Belgian suggested he
could have won the world title last weekend had he been given the chance.
Van Aert, the Belgian road race champion, said Evenepoel had “preached” for weeks in favour of the tactics. But he was now making “really weird” comments and changing his mind completely about the race plan he had been so supportive of.
Evenepoel bemoaned the fact the Belgian team had stuck to its plan of riding for Van Aert, saying it was a wasted opportunity for other riders in the team, adding he felt he could have won the race.
After Evenepoel’s remarks, Van Aert has not held back, saying his young team mate at the Worlds has now said more to the media post-race that he had in the team meeting before the event.
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"Remco's explanation disturbed me," Van Aert has now said in the Belgian media. "We went to the World Championships as a team. I would like to congratulate the national coach for how he has done that.
"I think he has been very clear
to everyone from the start. I expected that there would be criticism because we
did not win. Only then would everything have been perfect and otherwise there
would always be criticism.
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“I think it's not wise to add fuel to the fire from someone within the team. I think Remco told a lot more in Extra Time Koers than he said in the team meeting.
"I don't think there were any problems and it's very easy to talk like that afterwards. He was the one who agreed with the tactics, who agreed with the selection. He has been preaching for weeks on end how he was looking forward to it so I think it's really weird to turn 180 degrees now."
Evenepoel has now
said that after a team talk this day last week he was unsure what was expected
of him in the race. He then went to team management the following day, on the
eve of the race, and asked them directly about the tactics.
“I went to Sven (Vanthourenhout) Serge (Pauwels) and
asked: 'What is expected from me in concrete terms?' I also said straight out
I thought I may be able to win the race in a certain scenario. 'Do I get a
chance or not?' I asked. ‘no’ was the answer.”
After that he said he resigned himself to riding for Van Aert, with Jasper Stuyven as secondary leader, and that meant his main job was to ensure no dangerous breakaways got away without Belgian representation.
“But I did say to Sven Vanthourenhout: 'This is a missed opportunity, for several guys',” Evenepoel added in an interview with Extra Time Koers, telling the show he believed he had the form to win.
Van Aert was chosen as team leader because his results are much better than Evenepoel’s. Van Aert is also a much better sprinter and generally much more versatile than Evenepoel, who has only been able to win races so far with long-range solo attacks and cannot sprint.
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