Remco Evenepoel is riding the Grand Tour of his life, possibly even better than when he won the Vuelta a España in 2022, and yet he sits third on the Tour de France's general classification, behind two riders who might be some of the best ever.
The Soudal Quick-Step rider is now seven minutes behind Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) and two minutes behind Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) after stage 19 of the Tour, another day where Pogačar was better than anyone, but Evenepoel matched Vingegaard.
Now eight minutes in front of fourth-placed João Almeida (UAE Team Emirates), Evenepoel is comfortably on the podium at his first Tour. The truth is, however, that Pogačar is just on a different level.
Asked by French TV if he thought "he’s not the same as us" when Pogačar made his critical attack on Friday, Evenepoel agreed.
"I think it’s like that, yes," he said. "When [Adam] Yates raised the tempo, it was already a bit like an attack and then he [Pogačar] took the same pace. So, they have a tactic which puts everyone on the limit and then after he holds that pace. Everyone explodes like we saw today.
"So, I wanted to keep riding at my own rhythm and the car told me Mikel [Landa] wasn’t that far behind me so I waited for him to benefit from his help. And then 5.5km from the finish, I gave it a go to see if Jonas was still good. He was able to resist and stayed in my wheel, it’s not that he did a lot of work. I’m happy I’m still third and I think I did a good stage today."
When Pogačar attacked, Evenepoel initially followed before setting his own tempo. Tellingly, Vingegaard could only follow, rather than pushing on, although this was also him protecting his second place on GC; any harder and he might have blown up, as others who have followed Pogačar have before.
It was impressive that the Belgian continues to press home his advantage and ensure he is on the podium, and there could be more to come.
"Today was a key moment in my career," Evenepoel said. "It’s clear that today, but also tomorrow, it’s another stage, a little bit easier than today, but I think I’m reassured in my own capacities. After this Tour de France, it’s clear which direction I want to go in. It’s done me a lot of good to perform as I have in the last 19 stages.
"It’ll be hard to take that second place, he will focus on that position too so tomorrow, i’ll see how the race goes and on Sunday, I will go all-out to win the stage."
Saturday is another tough day in the mountains, with over 4,000m of elevation, before Sunday's final stage is a hilly time trial, something the TT world champion is targeting. It could be an even better Tour for Evenepoel yet.
