{"id":192312,"date":"2025-10-05T22:57:25","date_gmt":"2025-10-05T22:57:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/192312\/"},"modified":"2025-10-05T22:57:25","modified_gmt":"2025-10-05T22:57:25","slug":"i-really-believe-it-was-possible-to-bring-tadej-pogacar-back-remco-evenepoel-frustrated-by-lack-of-help-in-chase-at-european-championship-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/192312\/","title":{"rendered":"“I really believe it was possible to bring Tadej Pogacar back” \u2013 Remco Evenepoel frustrated by lack of help in chase at European Championship 2025"},"content":{"rendered":"


\nA repeat script, a familiar result<\/p>\n

The race was shaping up perfectly for Belgium. The team had numbers. Evenepoel was in stellar form. And as many expected, Pogacar was isolated with more than 90km to go. But the script began to shift when the Slovenian launched a devastating attack with 75km remaining \u2014 a move only Evenepoel looked capable of answering.<\/p>\n

Briefly, the Belgian clawed his way back to within 20 seconds, leading a small but powerful chase group featuring Juan Ayuso<\/a>, Paul Seixas<\/a>, and Christian Scaroni. But when the others refused to contribute to the pace, Evenepoel was left with little choice but to shoulder the workload alone \u2014 a tactical imbalance that would ultimately prove costly.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was pretty frustrating,\u201d he admitted. \u201cWith four guys in the tailwind and headwind sections, we really could\u2019ve brought him back. But when I saw the lack of help, I knew it was going to be difficult. Maybe I should\u2019ve gone earlier, tried to get rid of them, but after the race it\u2019s always easier to talk.\u201d<\/p>\n

Evenepoel pushed on solo in the final 30km, distancing his fellow chasers and securing silver once again. But for a rider who measures himself by victories \u2014 and who has the European Championships road race as one of the few missing major titles from his palmares \u2014 second place felt hollow.<\/p>\n

\"Tadej<\/p>\n

The final podium of the 2025 European Championships\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cBeaten by power\u201d<\/p>\n

Evenepoel was candid in his praise for Pogacar, acknowledging that, cooperation or not, his rival was once again riding on another level. \u201cI was on a good day, but he was on a super good day,\u201d he said. \u201cI just tried my maximum to beat him, but he shows again why he\u2019s the best in the world. I was beaten by power \u2014 simply by someone stronger.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite the result, Evenepoel was quick to defend his Belgian teammates, who were among the most aggressive and organised squads throughout the race. \u201cWe did what we had in mind,\u201d he said. \u201cEverybody was on a good day and did their job. We were never in defence mode, even when Tadej attacked.\u00a0We go home with another silver medal in the road race \u2014 not what we came for, of course, but we have to accept it and keep looking forward.\u201d<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A repeat script, a familiar result The race was shaping up perfectly for Belgium. The team had…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":192313,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[569],"tags":[64,63,784,85],"class_list":["post-192312","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-cycling","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/192312","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=192312"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/192312\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/192313"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=192312"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=192312"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=192312"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}