Suffering Remco Evenepoel abandons Tour de France on Tourmalet
After struggling on the first two days in the Pyrenees, Remco Evenepoel dropped out of the Tour de France when he was distanced on the lower slopes of the Col du Tourmalet on stage 14.
Remco Evenepoel has abandoned the Tour de France after he was dropped on the Col du Tourmalet on stage 14. The direction of travel was already apparent since the Tour de France hit the high mountains, and Evenepoel’s hopes of a revival faded definitively on the lower slopes of the Tourmalet.
Evenepoel was already three minutes down on the yellow jersey group when he withdrew midway up the Tourmalet with a shade over 100km remaining.
The Belgian began the day still in third place overall, but he was already some 7:24 down on yellow jersey Tadej Pogačar, and he had suffered the indignity of being caught and passed in the Peyragudes mountain time trial on Friday afternoon.
Evenepoel’s struggles were already clear when he was dropped on the Col du Soulor on stage 13, though he chased back on over the other side and managed to limit his losses on the final haul to Hautacam.
On Saturday’s mammoth stage to Superbagnères, Evenepoel was distanced almost as soon as the race hit the first climb of the day, the Col du Tourmalet. Teammate Pascal Eenkhoorn dropped back to pace him, but Evenepoel’s leaden pedalling told its own story.
When the television motorbike slowed to capture the moment for posterity, a forlorn Evenepoel waved the cameraman away.
As on the Soulor on Thursday, Evenepoel put up some resistance, following a tempo that allowed him to hold the gap on the lower part of the Tourmalet despite UAE Team Emirates-XRG’s pacing in front. But his fatigue and the length of the climb took their toll, and Evenepoel was no longer able to hold the wheels in the group led by Eenkhoorn.
As on the Soulor on Thursday, Evenepoel put up some resistance, following a tempo that allowed him to hold the gap on the lower part of the Tourmalet despite UAE Team Emirates-XRG’s pacing in front. But his fatigue and the length of the climb took their toll, and Evenepoel was no longer able to hold the wheels in the group led by Eenkhoorn. He fell more than two minutes down on the yellow jersey group and dropped back to the Soudal-QuickStep car for a lengthy discussion, again waving away the cameras.
Shortly afterwards, Evenepoel climbed into the team car and abandoned the Tour. He had started this race with designs on improving on his sparkling 2024 debut, when he placed third overall and won the white jersey.
Evenepoel won the stage 5 time trial in Caen this year, and he was still in the white jersey on Saturday, though Florian Lipowitz (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) was closing in.
At the start in Pau on Saturday, Evenepoel’s coach Koen Pelgrim acknowledged that the rider had been struggling in training between the Critérium du Dauphiné and the Tour, and his schedule had been lightened to allow him more time to recover.
Evenepoel had entered the Dauphiné optimistic that he could compete with Pogacar and Vingegaard, but after a bright start, he faded in the high mountains and placed fourth overall.
“It looked pretty good there, but the last few days weren’t great either. After that, he had a difficult period in training,” Pelgrim told Sporza.
“He hadn’t recovered well from the Dauphiné and was struggling with his training. We had to adjust that with extra rest. He struggled with the intensity, and then you know it wasn't the ideal approach.”
