'It would be typically Belgian just to find the negatives' - Remco Evenepoel bounces back from mini-crisis to move onto Tour de France GC podium

Time and again, Remco Evenepoel has shown throughout his career that he is never so dangerous as when he's got a point to prove. On stage 10 of the Tour de France to Le Lioran, the Belgian Champion made his recovery from a setback count to the maximum.

Briefly dropped by a group containing key GC contenders like Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike), Paul Seixas (Decathlon CMA CGM) and his teammate Florian Lipowitz (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) on a Cat. 3 ascent of the Col de Font de Cére, less than seven kilometres from the finish at Le Lioran, for a moment it looked like Evenepoel's overall challenge was on the point of collapsing. After all, if he could not handle such a straightforward ascent, what chance would Evenepoel have on the more testing terrain in the Alps and Vosges yet to come?

Instead, the Belgian bounced back with a vengeance, blasting down the descent that followed and then delivering a searing sprint in the finale to claim second on the stage. Solo winner and race leader Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) had long since claimed his triumph, but Evenepoel's runner-up spot pushed him back onto the podium, 30 seconds behind Vingegaard and 18 up on fourth-placed Juan Ayuso (Lidl-Trek).

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More importantly, and albeit on a much lesser scale than when he cracked on the Tourmalet in the Vuelta a España in 2023 and then clinched a stunning breakaway victory the next day, Evenepoel showed once again on stage 10 that when it comes to recovering from setbacks, he has few, if any, rivals in the current peloton.

For what's left to come in the Tour, that could once again prove to be invaluable.

"It would be typically Belgian just to find the negatives today, and I hope that doesn't happen," Evenepoel told Eurosport at the finish, referring to the knee-jerk criticism that tends to proliferate back home whenever there is the slightest failing on his part.

"What do I give myself for today? A 9, 10. Not a 10, because I had to ease off for a bit.

“UAE rode very hard again all day and I had a bit of a difficult moment in the valley. Why? I just struggled for two or three minutes because some annoying changes of pace."

"I really struggled on that uphill section,” Evenepoel noted to Eurosport. “I was close to cramping, but I kept fighting. But I feel like I recover well from exertion.

"Afterwards, I rode a good descent, a bit faster than the rest, and wasted little energy. I saved myself a bit and attacked with 250 metres to go."

Evenepoel said remembering the same, slightly uphill finish from two years ago in Le Lioran, when he finished alongside his then-rival and now-teammate Primož Roglič, had helped him calculate when to deliver his impressive final turn of speed this time.

As a result, he's now gained time on all the opposition, from just two seconds on Paul Seixas (Decathlon CMA CGM) to 12 seconds on Vingegaard, through to 59 seconds on a surprisingly struggling Isaac del Toro (UAE Team Emirates-XRG). On all of them bar Seixas in third, there was also a six second time bonus in his favour.

"It is good to make back some time, especially with the weekend coming up. I need to stay calm, survive well, and Saturday and Sunday will certainly be another big fight for the general classification.

“I feel myself getting better every day, and that is only a good thing."

At Red Bull, if the goal ever really existed, the idea of taking on Pogačar for yellow at the Tour has been all but quietly binned. However, Vingegaard's unexpected late difficulty and the much better coordination between Lipowitz, now fifth overall, and Evenepoel, compared to the Belgian's very vocal criticisms of his teammate after the Pyrenean stage, have boosted the team's collective optimism.

“The positive thing was that we still had Lipowitz at the front. He wasn't riding along, which allowed Remco to catch up and recover for a moment," Klaas Lodewyck, team manager of Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe, told Sporza.

"When you see how they played it out today, you notice that they are on the same wavelength."

And in the process, Evenepoel also reminded the world that even if it's only briefly like on the climb before Le Lioran, he's never so dangerous as when he's been on the back foot.

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