'The injuries are not bad' – Remco Evenepoel brushes off late crash at Critérium du Dauphiné

Remco Evenepoel endured a late scare on stage 5 of the Critérium du Dauphiné, but the Soudal-QuickStep rider reported no lasting injuries after his crash in the final kilometre in Mâcon.

The yellow jersey was a faller following a turn on a roundabout in the finale, but he was quickly back on his bike. He was awarded the same time as stage winner Jake Stewart and he retains the overall lead ahead of the Dauphiné’s entry into the mountains.

“I actually don’t know what happened,” Evenepoel said after the podium ceremony. “Maybe the handlebars slipped, because I had quite sweaty hands in the end with the humidity, or maybe the wheel just slipped away from accelerating in the corner. I really don’t know, but in the end it was nothing huge, so I’m just happy that the injuries are not bad.”

Evenepoel sustained cuts to his right knee and shoulder in the crash, but he downplayed the extent of his injuries and indicated that they would not prove a hindrance on Friday’s summit finish at Combloux.

“It looks worse because they put some stuff on it and it’s now leaking out – but it’s nothing, actually, just some skin off,” Evenepoel said. “I think this one will not affect me at all. It’s nothing bad and not on bad places. It’s really small injuries, nothing bad. It was an unlucky moment.”

Evenepoel leads the Dauphiné thanks to his imposing victory in the stage 4 time trial. He holds a buffer of four seconds over Florian Lipowitz (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe), while Jonas Vingegaard (Visma | Lease a Bike) is 16 seconds and Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) trails by 38 seconds.

The trio of stages in the Alps will offer Evenepoel a chance to measure himself against Vingegaard and Pogacar in the high mountains ahead of the Tour de France.

“It will definitely be a first test,” Evenepoel said of Friday’s finale in Combloux. “It’s a nice all-out summit finish. I think it’s something like 20 minutes, so I think it’s going to be a good first test. It’s nothing compared with Saturday’s stage, but every summit finish is important.”

Earlier on Thursday, Evenepoel lost teammate Louis Vervaeke to a crash, with Soudal-QuickStep confirming that he had suffered a fracture to his left clavicle. Vervaeke is due to return to Belgium on Friday for an assessment in hospital in Herentals. 

It remains to be seen if his participation in the Tour de France will be affected. Evenepoel will already be without key climbing domestique Mikel Landa in July after the Basque crashed heavily on the opening day of the Giro d’Italia.