Remco Evenepoel appeared sceptical when he learned last October that the Tour de France would feature a gravel stage in the heart of the Champagne region this year.
A hesitant display on the gravel roads of the Giro d’Italia on stage 11 in 2021 was perhaps in the back of the Belgian’s mind when the Tour route was announced in Paris last Autumn. But Evenepoel is not the kind of rider to allow past fear to affect his willingness to race.
Three years on and Evenepoel came alive on the chemins blancs around Troyes, throwing down the gauntlet to Jonas Vingegaard and Tadej Pogačar with an aggressive, all-in display, launching a flurry of attacks looking to force a split in the yellow jersey group behind stage winner Anthony Turgis.
One week into the Tour and Evenepoel, 33 seconds down on Pogačar, is gradually emerging as the Slovenian's biggest challenger for overall victory in Nice, a status he appears perfectly at ease with on debut.
After collecting a fresh white jersey as best young rider after the stage, Evenepoel said that he had been left disappointed with Vingegaard’s display. While the Belgian and Pogačar looked to light up the race, Vingegaard and his Visma-Lease a Bike teammates preferred to mark attacks and sit on the wheel instead of riding offensively.
"I think Tadej [Pogačar] and I were not happy with this because I think maybe the podium for the Tour could have been decided today already," Evenepoel told journalists after being asked for his take on Vingegaard’s display.
"We have to accept race tactics and race situations, but sometimes you also need the balls to race. Unfortunately maybe Jonas didn’t have them today."
He added: "I totally accept the reasons why he didn’t pull, why he didn’t race but of course Tadej and I both like to attack pretty far away from the finish and we wanted to continue, but Jonas is sometimes a bit more defensive. We have to accept it, he will have lots of good reasons to race like this so also I completely understand why.
"I was never in trouble, except for one time on I think sector eight, where there was a bit of a tricky situation just in front of me and I had to close a gap but in the end everything was under control. I had good legs and I'm happy it’s a rest day tomorrow now."
During the chaos of the stage, Vingegaard was forced to change onto the bike of his teammate, Jan Tratnik, after a mechanical issue which arguably impacted his ability to race.
"He [Vingegaard] was doing incredible for this situation," Visma-Lease a Bike's Matteo Jorgenson said afterwards. "To have a different reach, different bars, different brakes, everything, it was impressive to see. Also, he’s just so light that on the gravel, it’s just really not suited for him. But he did a really good job and I’m proud of him. I’m just glad we got ourselves out of it."
Despite slight hints of frustration, Evenepoel appeared calm and confident as he dissected the stage, explaining that he looked to take advantage of the weather and "heavy legs" when he launched an attack from distance, looking to disrupt the state of play in the yellow jersey group.
He said: "I knew that this was one of the last hard sectors that we were going to do on the gravel sectors and I just wanted to go for it, it was a fast cross-tailwind so it made it a very fast sector. If we came to the front group and we had returned all together then I think the race could have been decided there. But like I said, it's a race situation, race tactics and we have to accept that."
