Remco Evenepoel crashed at stage 5 of Tour de Sussie as he felt drained due to the heat. He felt the power leave his legs as his legs started to feel heavier and heavier. He confessed that he could not compete with fellow opponents because he did not feel it in his legs. He said:
Definitely, the heat has something to do with it, but also I felt my legs were getting heavier and heavier every lap
The QuickStep-AlphaVinyl rider came to compete at the Tour among leading contesters. Keeping in view his performance at the Tour of Norway, he has a total of 9 wins this season. However, on Thursday, he lost all hope to take the victory. He finished the race in 28th place, 2 minutes and 12 seconds after Aleksandr Vlasov.
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The Belgian was clearly grappling with just 20 km to the finish line. His contact with the team was lost on an uncategorized climb. His fellow teammates helped him get back in the race, but he was unable to keep up the pace with the other riders inside the final 10 km. He realizes what this means for his future days at the race:
I really can’t lose any more time if I still want to keep up with the best GC guys or have a nice GC at the end of the week
The 22-year-year-old began the race by rubbing shoulders with the race favorites, but he ended on an awful note. He fell down 19 places from the overall standings. He puts the blame on his legs, which were not able to keep up with the best riders:
It’s not the legs I needed to have for this stage. It was similar to the first stage but there I definitely had the legs. Here I didn’t have very good legs. I’m not going to say they were super bad but not enough to follow best guys
Remco does not have any time to lose or rest, as he will have to make up for his lost position. He will have to give his best on Friday and Saturday because the mountains are not very forgiving of the weak. He is well aware of the challenges that he will have to face and said:
There are still two super hard and long stages to come so I’ll keep fighting and doing my best. I also keep the TT in my head, which is quite long
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Also Read: Tour De Sussie: Jumbo-Visma Withdraws Due To Covid-19 Outbreak
Featured Image Via YouTube/ Cycling Pro Net
