Baby steps for Evenepoel as he returns to training, Lodewyck eyes Tour de France recon
Soudal Quick-Step head to Etoile de Bessèges hunting GC and stages 🇧🇪 🇫🇷
Hi Subscribers,
I’ve landed in Marseille ahead of tomorrow’s Etoile de Bessèges.
I’ll be in France until the final stage, and assuming all goes well, I’ll be picking up news, interviews, and race analysis covering Lidl-Trek, Ineos Grenadiers, EF Education-EasyPost, Soudal Quick-Step and several other teams at the race.
Before calling it a night, here’s an interview with Soudal Quick-Step’s Klaas Lodewyck, who is Remco Evenepoel’s main sports director. We talked about the young Belgian, his recovery from the incident that ruined his winter, and the race here in France, where Soudal have a highly competitive team.
This is my first race of the year, my first time at Bessèges, and, I think, my first time covering a race in France since the 2022 Tour de France. I can’t wait to get started tomorrow.
Actually, Lidl-Trek have just messaged me. If I get to their hotel in the next 45 mins Mads Pedersen will sit down for an interview. I guess the race starts now.
Remember, I’ll also be sharing several interview recordings in the WhatsApp group for founding members to enjoy, [including Mads], so now’s a great time to sign up or upgrade your membership to that status. If you’re a new subscriber, you can do that during the sign-up process, and if you want to upgrade, simply head to the settings page of your profile or the link below.
Let’s go!
Daniel
Remco Evenepoel (Soudal Quick-Step) returned to training at the weekend, transitioning from indoor riding to his first ventures outside. The Belgian star accumulated approximately 130km over Saturday and Sunday – all encouraging signs following his serious collision with a driver’s door in December, which left him with a host of injuries, including several fractures and nerve damage.
After six weeks off the bike, the Tour de France contender is building up slowly, with a potential return to racing in mid-April.
“Everything is going as planned. He’s still doing easy rides and working with the physio. So far, so good and easygoing, I would say,” Klaas Lodewyck told us during a phone call on Monday night.