Despite becoming the frontrunner to challenge Tadej Pogačar at the Tour de France after moving into second place, and the yellow jersey admitting that he will be "a pain in the ass" in the final week, Remco Evenepoel has said he believes Pogačar "doesn't need to worry about anyone."
For Evenepoel, he too isn't focusing his mind on his competitors, vowing to direct all his efforts to defending his spot on GC and only doing that, as he spoke to international media over a video call on Monday's rest day.
Fresh off the back of the biggest mountain victory of his career, where Evenepoel defeated UAE Team Emirates-XRG duo Pogačar and Isaac del Toro atop Plateau de Solaison, the Belgian is exactly five minutes behind the Slovenian. With Jonas Vingegaard crashing out before the final climb on Sunday, Evenepoel is now Pogačar's closest threat.
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"I'm not sure. Maybe he means for Del Toro's podium spot, but I have no idea what he actually means," said Evenepoel when asked about Pogačar's "pain in the ass" description on Monday.
"I don't think Tadej needs to worry about anyone. I'm just going to try to ride the third week of my life."
Though he is approaching his favourite terrain on stage 16 of the race – the individual time trial to Thonon-les-Bains – and took a huge step forward climbing-wise on Sunday, so has cause to be confident for the brutal Alpine stages coming next weekend, not getting carried away is going to be essential. It's no secret that the yellow jersey is a career goal, but he isn't allowing himself to think of that yet.
"For the moment, all good, but I mean I don't have to start to fly; I have to keep focused, feet on the ground, and work for my spot, defend it with everything I have in me," said Evenepoel.
"That's the main objective for the last week: just keep my spot, and it would be an amazing result for me to finish second behind one of the best, if not the best rider ever.
"First there is tomorrow, a very important stage for me. Then I have to try to get through two days as economically as possible. I’m not starting to dream of winning the Tour; if everything continues to go normally, that is very far out of reach."
Evenepoel, despite his prowess as a three-time and current time trial world champion, won't be taking five minutes out of Pogačar across Tuesday's 26.1km race against the clock, but it would not be surprising to gain at least a minute on all of his GC rivals and those challenging him for the podium.
He admitted before the race how much weight he had lost, nearly 4kg in the hope of improving his abilities on the longer climbs, which hadn't been visible until Sunday's 15th stage. Even with the significant drop in weight, though, Evenepoel isn't expecting it to be a major hindrance to his TT abilities, and may even help him with the course starting with a 9.7km climb that averages 4.3%.
"A real difference can be made on the climb. It's going to be special with many split times. It's also the day after the rest day, and some react differently to that than others. We could well see some surprising things," he said.
"The first ten kilometres are uphill, so my weight isn't necessarily a disadvantage. I remember from the 2023 Vuelta that my time trial was good, so I'm confident it should be fine. It definitely takes away power, but it should be balanced.
"[It's] a beautiful course, very fast and technical, and at times even a bit dangerous. The finale isn't easy, but I'm going to give it my all and try to win the stage."
Tuesday's stage will prove hugely important to his hopes of finishing second, with a duo of brutal stages to Alpe d'Huez at the weekend set to see him defend against the likes of Del Toro, Paul Seixas and Juan Ayuso. Given what we saw last weekend, though, Evenepoel will be the favourite to finish as runner-up.
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