For the first time on the mountains on this Tour de France, Remco Evenepoel took a while on Tadej Pogacar and Jonas Vingegaard at the finish of stage 17.
“I felt Vingegaard was a bit on the limit,” Evenepoel mentioned. “When Tadej attacked, I was the only one more or less close. I’m not going to say I slowed because I rode away from Jonas after that. But I couldn’t get back on the wheel, I had just reacted too late.”
“I still felt good, and I still had a teammate in front,” mentioned Evenepoel. “They shouted to me in the earpiece, ‘If it slows down at the foot of the final climb, then go straight away.’ That’s what I did. And Jan dropped me off in the last kilometre, as I had asked.”
“In the end, it’s 10 seconds or so [on Pogacar and Vingegaard], and that’s all good. But the fact that the gap to the guys behind me on GC was 2:30 is even better.”
“Maybe I should have jumped a bit more aggressively, but it’s all new to me. I didn’t dare to go all-in on a 4km uphill finish,” mentioned Evenepoel.
“I think Tadej could have reacted to me, but he left Visma-Lease a Bike do the work”.
“That could be to my advantage, but we will mainly stick to our basic plan, which is a place on the podium and the white jersey. Maybe there is also a stage win, although everything I can show and experience here is a bonus.”
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