Remco Evenepoel wore a COVID-19 face mask as he spoke to the Tour de France media in the Palazzo Vecchio in the Renaissance heart of Florence, keen to avoid catching a virus so close to the start of his first Tour de France.
Lidl-Trek lost Tao Geoghegan Hart to COVID-19 after the Critérium du Dauphiné and his teammates Mads Pedersen and Giulio Ciccone also caught the virus but are riding the Tour. Visma-Lease a Bike have returned to wearing masks after Sepp Kuss was forced to miss the Tour due to suffering with COVID-19.
Evenepoel is not taking any risks but is not sick.
“It’s about being careful,” he said from behind his red mask, sweating in the heat of the packed room.
“I don’t want to end the Tour like last year’s Giro. I wanted to feel a bit safer in the press conference. We’re going to have a lot of contact with people for a few hours during the team presentation, too, so wearing a mask is just a caution. I don’t want to scare people that I’m sick, I’m fine, but I’m cautious.”
Evenepoel has won the Vuelta a España and other major races but admitted, with less than 48 hours to the start of this year’s Tour, that he is starting to understand the ‘grandeur’ of the biggest race in the sport.
“The first moment when I really started to feel the importance of the Tour was when I entered this room,” he said.
“It’s the first time I’ve seen so many people in a press conference. The team presentation will be big, too. But there’s no stress so far, and I feel pretty relaxed.”
The 24-year-old Belgian recently compared UAE Team Emirates to Real Madrid in a soccer analogy and now described his Soudal-QuickStep team as an underdog.
“We’re an underdog team because we don’t have the big star riders like they have, but we have the mental strength and a lot of experience, too,” he said, showing pride in the eight-rider Soudal-QuickStep line-up.
“Yves Lampert is doing his fifth Tour, Mikel Landa is doing what seems like his 200th Tour and Moscon too. We have a lot of experience.”
Evenepoel set himself modest but important goals for his Tour debut.
“A stage win and to make it to Nice would be a success, to improve myself as a GC rider,” he said.
“I want to become a better rider compared to the best guys and pick up some results. But riding the GC is about three weeks, not two days, but we’re prepared for it.”
Even if Evenepoel endures a bad day, he will not ease up like he did during last year’s Vuelta. He will fight on and suffer.
“I’m here for a good GC result. My preparation for last year’s Vuelta was different, I didn’t feel the same. We’ll take a different approach here for sure and not let it go like that day. We’ll see, but I hope I’m not dropped again.”
Evenepoel said he was mentally ready for the testing gravel stage at the end of the first week and for the opening stage to Rimini and Bologna when the rolling terrain and late climbs of San Luca near Bologna could see the Tour blow up very early.
True to character, Evenepoel spoke bluntly, especially about defending Tour winner Jonas Vingegaard and the way Visma-Lease a Bike appear to have played down his chances after his terrible crash at the Itzulia Bsasque Country.
"If we believe the Visma team, he’s nowhere, they said he’s not even here to fight for the podium. Their explanations are strange,” Evenepoel said.
“But it’s Jonas Vingeggard, so I think he’ll end up here to fight with the best and in the mix for the Tour de France victory for sure.”
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