At the end after two days in hell in the Pyrenees, Remco Evenepoel left the roads of the Tour de France on Saturday at the start of the 14th stage. After his abandonment and before disappearing in the bus of his Sudal-Quick Step team, the Belgian runner expressed his deep sadness.
The summers follow each other and are not alike for Remco Evenepoel. There is one, the Belgian runner offered himself two sublime Olympic gold medals in Paris and an unforgettable image, only the arms raised in front of the Eiffel Tower. If the summer of 2024 looked like an awake dream, the month of July 2025 is a real nightmare. Arrived on the Tour de France with appetite, the Sudal-Quick Step training runner has disillusioned in the Pyrenees.
In great difficulty in Hautacam on Thursday, swallowed and humiliated by Jonas Vingegaard during the Chrono on Friday, Evenepoel said Stop on Saturday from the start of the ascent of Tourmalet, the first difficulty of the 14th stage. After offering his container to a child, the Belgian, at the end of force and in tears, went down from his bike, taking with him his podium dreams in Paris while he was in 3rd place in the general classification. “All the sacrifices you made then go back to the surface,” commented the Belgian, quoted by HLN. “After all the difficult moments for me and at home, I found the courage to continue. And finally, everything fails. It’s extremely painful and it’s a hard blow this year.”
His parents were waiting for him at the top of the Tourmalet
On the reasons for this abandonment, the Sudal-Quick Step runner has no explanation. “Everyone knows that my winter was bad, maybe there is something in my body … apart from cycling, I never feel tired or bad. But on the bicycle, I can’t push enough.”
His coach, Koen Pelgrim, thinks that he did not recover enough after the Dauphiné. “I couldn’t train,” confirms Evenepoel. “I had nothing in my legs. Klaas (Lodewyck, the sports director, editor’s note) told me to stop. It was the only good decision. I could have continued to roll, but the discomfort could have settled even more in the body.” And then another data made the Belgian even sadder. His parents were waiting for him at the top of the Tourmalet. “I knew they were there to support me. It was the worst day to give up …”
