Red Devil Thibaut Courtois exchanges shirts with Evenepoel: “Hopefully this is just the beginning for Remco”

Thibaut Courtois won convincingly in the Spanish highest class on Sunday afternoon with Real Madrid from Mallorca (4-1). The national goalkeeper quickly changed his clothes after the game to watch the denouement of the Vuelta live. Real’s Bernabeu stadium was just three kilometers from the finish. “It’s nice to be there,” Courtois said. “It has often been the case that the Vuelta has arrived in Madrid, but I couldn’t come and watch because I had a match. Now we played in the afternoon, so I could still come. I’ve been following the race since I was young. My grandfather, Blessed, used to always set the course. I usually always watch the Tour, Vuelta, Giro and all the classics on television. So I follow it a lot.”

Courtois saw a compatriot with Remco Evenepoel take the overall victory. “It is a great achievement. After 44 years to finally have a Belgian final winner, it is unbelievable. It is not often that we have Belgian climbers. There is now a generation coming up with a few toppers. It is unbelievable that Remco was able to achieve this. Hopefully this is just the beginning. Hopefully he can also achieve his next goals. The Tour will also be in between, but he has to take it easy. He himself will know what to do. His preparation has been excellent this year and he has shown he has to tackle it.”

Behind the Vuelta stage between all the ceremonial obligations, Courtois and Evenepoel saw each other for a while, an hour later they managed to exchange jerseys on the team bus. A red goalkeeper jersey from Courtois in front of a red Vuelta jersey from Evenepoel. “I knew he was coming. It is very nice to have the hero of Madrid here at the finish”, Evenepoel also expressed his admiration.