What next for Remco Evenepoel following Tour de France collapse? 🇧🇪
The Belgian remains box office because of his highs, lows and everything in between
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At the foot of the final ascent to Superbagnères, the team buses were lined up along the street directly opposite the press room, and once again, one of the largest crowds was gathered around the Soudal Quick-Step encampment.
Unlike at UAE Team Emirates-XRG, Visma-Lease Bike and Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe, where the mood varied between continued giddy delight and mild satisfaction, the atmosphere outside the Soudal bus was sombre and still.
The thin cordon separating the team staff and media kept inching closer towards the bus as more and more cameras and journalists assembled, all waiting for Remco Evenepoel to emerge and provide an explanation for his decision to quit the Tour de France.
Less than 24 hours earlier, after a chastening performance in the stage 13 mountain time trial, the Belgian - or whoever runs his social media account - had taken to Instagram and pledged, ‘Very bad day on the bike but giving up is not in my nature.’
And yet here was Evenepoel, humbly walking towards the cameras, hoodie pulled up over his head, a baseball cap underneath, and Alessandro Tegner, long-time Soudal comms manager, at his side.
This had been a devastating day for Evenepoel and those around him after the double Olympic champion had seen his Tour de France dreams vanish on the slopes of the Col du Tourmalet. Unlike on stage 12, when he battled back gamely after being dropped, and then on another disastrous day on stage 13, his collapse on stage 14 was terminal, with the white jersey beginning to weaken almost as soon as the race turned skyward, and with 9km to go until the summit, his race was over.
On the lower slopes of the iconic climb, the white jersey began to lose ground, but unlike on stage 12, it was immediately evident that this was no minor blip. A few meters quickly became a couple of hundred, and Evenepoel cut a frustrated figure as the TV cameras slowed with him, keen to follow each agonising pedal stroke until the bitter end.
It wasn’t long before the rider was peeling to the side of the road and stepping into a Soudal Quick-Step team car, with his race finally over.