Remco Evenepoel came out of the spring beat up, fed up, and in desperate need of a proper break to iron out the creases before he takes on Tadej Poga\u010dar at the Tour de France.<\/p>\n
And that\u2019s why the Belgian superstar broke all the rules of pro cycling by choosing not to race for 68 days before he goes chasing after the maillot jaune<\/em>.<\/p>\n At least, that\u2019s all according to his trusted DS on Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe, Klaas Lodewyck.<\/p>\n Lodweyck told Het Laatste Nieuws<\/em> this week that Evenepoel was mentally and physically fried after he watched Poga\u010dar and Paul Seixas blast away from him at Li\u00e8ge-Bastogne-Li\u00e8ge.<\/p>\n According to Lodewyck, Evenepoel needed time to work through \u201ca thing or two\u201d after he suffered a bitter disappointment in the Ardennes.<\/p>\n Sprinting for third, nearly two minutes back on Poga\u010dar and Seixas, was a mental right-hook to an athlete already at breaking point.<\/p>\n Evenepoel had been on it since January in an extra-ambitious calendar of stage-racing and classics.<\/p>\n The 26-year-old was on borrowed time while he slugged out a streak of podium finishes at Flanders, Amstel, and Li\u00e8ge.<\/p>\n Lodewyck said Evenepoel was cooked when he won the sprint for third in Li\u00e8ge-Bastogne-Li\u00e8ge.<\/p>\n \u201cThat long block of competition took its toll. Twenty-five days isn\u2019t an extreme amount, but it was mainly about the way he approached it,\u201d Lodewyck told HLN<\/em>. \u201cRemco raced consistently at a very high level.<\/p>\n \u201cIn the week after his victory in the Amstel Gold Race, you could already tell that he was trying to recover a bit and wanted to take things easier. The mental sharpness was still there, but it was offset by the accumulating physical fatigue.\u201d<\/p>\n For Red Bull and Remco, racing the Crit\u00e9rium du Dauphin\u00e9 [now called the Tour Auvergne-Rh\u00f4ne-Alpes] next week as per the plan would be one race too far.<\/p>\n The anticipated brawl with Seixas and Isaac del Toro can wait a month until the Tour de France.<\/p>\n \u201cRemco salvaged that third place in Li\u00e8ge purely through perseverance and resilience,\u201d Lodewyck said. \u201cHats off to him. Because he could just as easily have let it slide and ended up with nothing at all.\u201d<\/p>\n After taking on a little too much in spring, Evenepoel needed a summer reset.<\/p>\n Evenepoel\u2019s racing wheels have been in storage since Li\u00e8ge on April 26.<\/p>\n No eventual winner has turned up to the grand d\u00e9part without racing for that long.<\/p>\n It\u2019s a calculated gamble after what was an unconvincing start to Evenepoel\u2019s time earning a blockbuster new Red Bull paycheck.<\/p>\n Because Evenepoel\u2019s winter and spring were a rollercoaster ride of dominant highs and disappointing lows.<\/p>\n He won six times in less than two weeks while most of the peloton was still on training camp in January and Feburary, but he fumbled hard at the UAE Tour and Volta a Catalunya.<\/p>\n Evenepoel\u2019s climbing weaknesses and stage-racing consistency were ruthlessly exposed on the high summits of the Emirates. A bizarre crash in Catalunya denied him the chance to prove wrong the chorus of doubters questioning his capacity as a stage-racer.<\/p>\n It was a messy start to a high-profile season for Evenepoel.<\/p>\n It muddied the waters of where he stands in the Red Bull hierarchy for the Tour de France.<\/p>\n Because while Evenepoel is slated to co-lead the team with metronomically consistent Florian Lipowitz in July, the results sheet shows who\u2019s the safer bet.<\/p>\n Lodewyck reasserted to HLN<\/em> that the controversial decision to cancel the Dauphin\u00e9 was Evenepoel and his team\u2019s best chance for the Tour de France.<\/p>\n He can start the TTT in Barcelona fully recharged and full of Bonus Miles.<\/p>\n \u201cRemco is saving himself the worry of getting ready in time for the Dauphin\u00e9, and the four or five days of recovery afterward. It would be desperately needed, given the extreme difficulty of the race,\u201d Lodewyck said.<\/p>\n \u201cInstead, he gets the \u2018luxury\u2019 of being able to continue working towards the Tour in peace. And to maintain the necessary physical and mental freshness.\u201d<\/p>\n Evenepoel leaves Sierra Nevada this weekend after a long block at altitude and will head back to his base in Calpe.<\/p>\n He then flies out for one last tune-up block of training at the end of June.<\/p>\n But this second installment of the Remco Regimen isn\u2019t also at thin air, as expected.<\/p>\n Instead, Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe is again ripping up the Tour de France script. Evenepoel and his entourage are pivoting from the tried-and-trusted altitude of Tignes or Isola 2000 to a lower-level camp in the Haute-Savoie.<\/p>\n According to Lodewyck, the off-beat base in the north of the Alps allows Evenepoel to better dovetail training efforts with Tour de France reconnaissance.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ll have to see where recons are compatible with Remco\u2019s training,\u201d Lodewyck said. \u201cHis fitness is the most important thing now. If that\u2019s good, we can usually get a lot done.<\/p>\n \u201cFrom now on, we want to dedicate every day to perfect training and perfect recovery. We\u2019ll see how far we can get against our rivals with that,\u201d Lodewyck told HLN.<\/em><\/p>\n Evenepoel\u2019s path to his first Tour de France as a Red Bull rider is laden with risk.<\/p>\n Jonas Vingegaard just crushed everybody at the Giro d\u2019Italia, Seixas seems to get better with every pedal stroke, and Poga\u010dar \u2026 he\u2019s Poga\u010dar.<\/p>\n For Evenepoel, there\u2019s no room for error.<\/p>\n Lodewyck isn\u2019t worried. With risk comes reward.<\/p>\n \u201cI am convinced that he will not come out of this worse than from a program with competition,\u201d Lodewyck said. \u201cThe Volta a Catalunya made it clear that we needed to continue to focus on climbing. And that is what we are taking the time for.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n [analyse_source url=”https:\/\/velo.outsideonline.com\/road\/road-racing\/fatigue-dissapointment-evenepoel-tour-risk\/”]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" [analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/velo-cdn.outsideonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/GettyImages-2269011418.jpg”] Jim Cotton Updated June 5, 2026 04:17AM Remco Evenepoel came out of the spring beat up, fed up, and in desperate need of a proper break to iron out the creases before he takes on Tadej Poga\u010dar at the Tour de France. And that\u2019s why the Belgian superstar broke all the rules […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[226,71],"class_list":["post-1973672","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-crawlmanager","tag-velo-outsideonline-com"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1973672","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1973672"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1973672\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1973672"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1973672"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1973672"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Evenepoel pays the price for ambitious start to season<\/h2>\n
![\"Evenepoel\"](\"https:\/\/velo-cdn.outsideonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/GettyImages-2272670606.jpg?width=2048&auto=webp&quality=75&fit=cover\")
No Crit\u00e9rium du Dauphin\u00e9 after a questionable spring<\/h2>\n
A second risk for Evenepoel: No more altitude<\/h2>\n
![\"Evenepoel](\"https:\/\/velo-cdn.outsideonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/GettyImages-2272630891.jpg?width=2048&auto=webp&quality=75&fit=cover\")
No room for error in blockbuster Tour de France brawl<\/h2>\n