Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-QuickStep) is on a successful comeback after a winter spent recovering from a complex shoulder injury, winning De Brabantse Pijl on Friday and finishing third in a three-way sprint against winner Mattias Skjelmose (Lidl-Trek) and runner-up Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) at Amstel Gold Race on Sunday - a race he said he could have won had he not crashed mid-race.
"I have mixed feelings. Positive, because I have come from very far. It is only my second day of racing, and I can come back on the strongest man of the moment. That is motivating, because that had not happened yet," Evenepoel said in a post-race interview with Sporza.
"I think I started the sprint a bit too early. There was a headwind, and maybe I should have gone more to the right, but I am not a sprinter, and I do not dare to look for edges.
"They did not come over by much. They only took half a bike. If I waited another 50 metres ... Without that fall, I would have won the race."
Evenepoel was involved in a crash with about 100km to go, which also involved some of the other race favourites, with Wout van Aert (Visma-Lease a Bike) and Thibau Nys (Lidl-Trek) reportedly coming down as well. They were all quickly back on their bikes and back in the peloton.
"I had to chase for at least 30 kilometres, and then there was a crash with my own teammate Pepijn Reinderink. It was very hectic on those narrow roads, left, right and up and down," Evenepoel said.
"I have to push 100 watts more to come back. In a race like this, you pay for it in cash. If I can save that energy, I could perhaps attack on the Cauberg or try to ride away on my own. But that will be for next year."
Julian Alaphilippe (Tudor) kicked things off with an attack on the Gulperberg, and Pogačar was the only one to follow before the world champion then went clear on his own on the Kruisberg, still more than 40km from the finish.
A chase group formed behind with many of the major players, but ultimately it was Skjelmose who gained a sizable gap over the Keutenberg. He was later joined by Evenepoel, who ended up doing the lion's share of the work to close the 30-second gap and reconnect with Pogačar with 8km to go.
"I was surprised in itself. I felt good, even after the crash, I was not at the limit," Evenepoel said, after being initially uncertain that he would be able to close the gap to Pogačar.
Evenepoel then led the trio onto the iconic finishing straight in Berg en Terblijt, and he sprinted from the front, but Pogačar still had enough left in the tank to power around him - both caught off-guard when Skjelmose kicked past them to steal the victory.
He said he was satisfied with finishing third, even if he felt that the crash hampered his race and that he started his sprint too soon. He also felt that his performance gave him some additional confidence ahead of Liège-Bastogne-Liège, a race he won in 2022 and 2023.
"It is especially good that Tadej was brought back. That will give him some doubts. Normally, he is the fastest of the three, but he was still beaten. We were all three at the limit," Evenepoel said. "I will not make the same mistake in Liège."
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