Remco Evenepoel successfully overcame another major obstacle in his pathway towards second place overall in the Tour de France on Friday on stage 19 to Alpe d'Huez, but not even a technically adept rider like the Belgian could avoid being blocked by fans and race motorbikes on the chaotic climb.
The Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe racer finished in sixth place at 2:29 behind stage winner and yellow jersey Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) at the Alpe d'Huez summit after an attack on the second part of the climb.
Evenepoel gained 12 seconds on Isaac del Toro (UAE Team Emirates-XRG), currently third on GC, and 16 seconds on Paul Seixas (Decathlon CMA CGM), now lying fourth. It wasn't a massive gap, but it provided further confirmation that Evenepoel is "best of the rest."
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While Pogačar is currently out of Evenepoel's league in the majority of climbing scenarios - although less than a week ago, he managed to get the better of the Slovenian at Plateau de Salaison - the Belgian heads into the final mountain stage with a solid 2:31 lead over Del Toro.
However, not everything went Evenepoel's way on Alpe d'Huez, as motorbikes and fans - the latter spilling onto the course in numerous places on the climb - blocked him during one of his initial attacks.
"That attack had to happen in two stages, because I was blocked by fans and motorcycles," Evenepoel told media later in comments reported by Sporza. "That was a shame, because otherwise it would have yielded a different result.
"It was to be expected that something would go wrong with all those people. It's just a shame that it happened to me, of all people," he added.
This is not the first time the Belgian has suffered such an external setback. Evenepoel was already blocked by a race organisation vehicle late on the crowd-lined ascent to the Col du Haag on stage 14, although he managed to limit any time losses.
Evenepoel said that the noise and cheering from the fans, too, was spectacularly loud on the climb, although he did appreciate the chance to race on such an emblematic ascent with such a high level of support.
"It wasn't easy to stay focused on the climb; you had to pay constant attention. My right ear is still ringing too. Fortunately, I was wearing an earpiece on the left," he explained.
"But all in all, it was a wonderful experience."
His sports director Klaas Lodewyck said, "Remco felt good and even attacked, but he got stuck behind a motorbike. He had to go for it again, and lost some time doing so. Ultimately, the gap at the finish was quite small."
Lodewyck added to Sporza that he was all in favour of fans lining the route on Alpe d'Huez on the climbs, but said that their behaviour sometimes went off the rails.
"As long as they encourage the riders and create a good atmosphere, it's fine. But when they start smashing car mirrors inwards and banging on the windows, then it's pushing the limits," he pointed out.
Although Evenepoel's stunning win on Plateau de Solaison, outpowering both the rider ahead of him on the GC podium - Pogačar - and the rider closest behind - Pogačar's teammate Del Toro, is fresh in the memory, the Belgian said that it was out of the question that he could have followed the Slovenian up the road when he attacked. Regardless of what happened to him subsequently with the fans and race motorbikes, that was never a real possibility.
"It was to be expected that Tadej wanted to pull another crazy stunt today," Evenepoel said.
"It was mission impossible to follow him. After that, I was quite comfortable sitting on the wheel of the Decathlon guys. I didn't think it was a fast pace, so I decided to attack five kilometres from the top."
Lodewyck was keen to put the experiences with the fans behind him as quickly as possible, and he emphasised that stage 20, with its more than 5,000 metres of climbing, would be a very different kind of mountain race to stage 19.
He also argued that with two podium places likely for UAE in Paris with Pogacar and Del Toro, the race leader's squad would most likely opt for a conservative approach.
"With the lead Tadej has, UAE will control the race to secure Del Toro's third place as well," Lodewyck told Sporza.
"We shouldn't think too much about what happened today; we need to focus on tomorrow. The stage will be very tough with so many climbs, and the key thing will be not to go over the limit."
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