Sick Remco Evenepoel thinks about giving up in the Benelux Tour
Tuesday 31 August 2021 at 13:59
Remco Evenepoel hoped to get his sporty gram today in Lelystad in the individual time trial of the Benelux Tour, but the Deceuninck-Quick-Step rider was not involved. Afterwards, the Belgian let it be known that he feels sick. “I couldn’t eat anything until one hour before the time trial,” said Evenepoel.
Evenepoel hoped to do good business in the time trial today, especially after he lost a minute in the fan stage to Dokkum yesterday after bad luck. However, the Belgian was unable to kick his normal wattages and was well short of the stage victory. “I was able to keep it up for the first three to four kilometers, but after that my legs went empty because I had not absorbed enough energy. We hoped for an improvement before the time trial, but that was not the case.”
The question now is whether Evenepoel will appear at the start of the third stage of the Benelux Tour tomorrow. “We are now looking at it day by day. If the situation continues to deteriorate, there is no point in continuing. We’ll see if I can keep down more food later. If that doesn’t work, I better get sick and recover towards next week,” the Belgian refers to the European cycling championships in Trentino.
Evenepoel hoped to do a good thing for the general classification today. “The loss of time is not that bad, given the situation. It’s just never fun, since I had hoped to take back time today. That might still work for some guys, but the differences won’t be as big as hoped.”
