Just as a thick mist engulfed the Luchon-Superbagnères climb at the Tour de France on Saturday, it was a gloomy day for Soudal-QuickStep, who lost Remco Evenepoel and with him the central direction of their race.
The Belgian climbed off early on stage 14 after immediately struggling on the Col du Tourmalet, after already suffering through the first two days in the Pyrenees.
Soudal-QuickStep came to this race to try and target the GC with 2024 podium finisher Evenepoel and stage wins with sprinter Tim Merlier, but have lost the first part of that ambition now, with vanishingly few sprint stages left either.
After the stage finish, Soudal sports director Tom Steels offered some insight into why the Belgian climbed off after initially starting the 14th stage.
"It was clear on the road that he didn't feel the best, you hope things turn on the road, and it didn't turn," he said.
Evenepoel is returning from a serious injury over the winter after he was hit by a driver opening a van door, and whilst no specific reasons for his poor performances – such as illness or injury – have come to light, the decision was made not to push on.
"He didn't have the legs to suffer also, so I think it's wiser not to continue, just recover well," Steels said. "He still has some goals in the season, maybe if he continued the Tour in [this] condition, then maybe the rest of the season is lost."
After he initially dropped back, his teammates were told to go for their own race, rather than try to support him to come back, before hearing that he had abandoned.
"He dropped quite early on Tourmalet, and then we heard in the radio that we got the green light, Schachmann, me and [Valentin] Paret-Peintre to do our own race," Ilan Van Wilder explained at the finish of stage 14.
"Valentin was in the break so it was a good job, and then at the beginning it was only Pascal to stay with Remco, and then I think on the top of Tourmalet, I heard from my teammate Schachmann that he'd dropped out of the race."
Evenepoel's next race is expected to be the Clásica San Sebastián, and then the World Championships, which are the goals he is trying to preserve himself for.
"He's world champion on the road and time trial and those have to be his next goals he has to aim for," Steels said. "You just have to call it in time because you feel something is wrong, already the third day in row that he doesn't feel right. But you have to be careful not to go over the limit because otherwise you lose months, not days."
Whilst Evenepoel may have made the right decision, his departure was a big disappointment for the team, who are now rudderless in the GC battle.
"It's not nice for him, but it's also not nice for the team and his teammates," Van Wilder said. "So of course we are sad, because we worked really hard to be here to support him."
With no GC rider, Soudal-QuickStep's best chance at further success will be through Tim Merlier on the possible sprint stage on stage 17, or perhaps breakaway success for a rider like Paret-Peintre.
In the face of great disappointment, Soudal-QuickStep were already looking ahead to how they might salvage something from the latter part of this race.
"I guess we move on," Van Wilder said. "We try to change our strategy in this Tour to make the last week still enjoyable and hopefully we can take one more stage with our sprinter Tim. That would be also nice. At least we will try. But this moment is not nice for sure.
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