For all Remco Evenepoel has tempered his occasional outbursts and matured into not just one of the sport's best communicators but one of the best bike riders in the world, fulfilling the promise he first showed after switching to cycling from football at the age of 17, he still needs criticism and doubters to fire him up, to power him towards yet more history.
And so, as he celebrated finishing third in his maiden Tour de France and winning the best young riders’ jersey, an emotional Evenepoel combatively took aim at all those who have questioned whether he ever could attain the results that his cycling-mad home nation demand of him.
