{"id":45263,"date":"2025-08-05T12:05:14","date_gmt":"2025-08-05T12:05:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/45263\/"},"modified":"2025-08-05T12:05:14","modified_gmt":"2025-08-05T12:05:14","slug":"has-the-criticism-of-remco-evenepoel-in-2025-gone-too-far","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/45263\/","title":{"rendered":"Has the criticism of Remco Evenepoel in 2025 gone too far?"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

This was a withering assessment from the most iconic name in
\nBelgian cycling history, one that seemed to question Evenepoel\u2019s fundamental
\nmakeup as a rider. It\u2019s not surprising given Merckx\u2019s long-standing,
\noccasionally gruff views on modern cycling, but his words carried weight. They
\nalso ignored context.<\/p>\n

Yes, it seems unlikely right now that anyone can beat Tadej
\nPogacar, especially in a grand tour. But to rule Evenepoel out, considering the
\ncontext of his 2025, seems harsh to me.<\/p>\n

Evenepoel\u2019s 2025 season began in April, and his last race of
\n2024 was on October 12. After that, he was sidelined for four months following
\na high-speed training crash with a van in December. It wasn\u2019t until April 18th
\nat Brabantse Pijl that he returned, and when he did, he promptly beat Wout van
\nAert in a sprint. This was not the sign of a finished rider. It was the sign of
\none who could still deliver brilliance, even without the months of foundational
\ntraining others had banked.<\/p>\n

Chris Horner<\/a>, speaking on his Beyond the Coverage podcast<\/a>,
\noffered the most nuanced, if critical, analysis<\/a> of all. He identified
\nEvenepoel\u2019s collapse at Li\u00e8ge\u2013Bastogne\u2013Li\u00e8ge as the point where the warning
\nlights began flashing. “Whatever brought in that problem at
\nLi\u00e8ge\u2013Bastogne\u2013Li\u00e8ge\u2026 that was the moment he needed to take two weeks off the
\nbike,\u201d Horner said.\"Evenepoel<\/p>\n

Evenepoel endured a brutal three days in the Pyrenees<\/p>\n

Instead, Evenepoel continued racing. He started Tour de
\nRomandie, then the Dauphin\u00e9, and ultimately the Tour. In hindsight, it was a
\nchain of miscalculations, either from the rider himself, his team, or both.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was never able to put together a training session
\nbetween Dauphin\u00e9 and the Tour,\u201d Horner pointed out, referencing Evenepoel\u2019s own
\nInstagram posts. “If you’re a rider like Remco Evenepoel and you can’t put
\nin a six-hour ride and feel fresh after, you’re not ready for the Tour de
\nFrance.\u201d<\/p>\n

Horner’s takeaway was clear: Evenepoel was over-raced and
\nunder-recovered. The \u201cdead battery\u201d metaphor he used was telling. \u201cA battery
\nshould never drop from full to zero,\u201d he said. \u201cIf something happens like that,
\nyou\u2019ve got a dead battery. Remco, you have a dead battery.\u201d<\/p>\n

These are fair criticisms rooted in form and physiology, but
\ndoes not mean the Belgian can\u2019t bounce back.<\/p>\n

Jan Ullrich<\/a>, however, took it a step further. Speaking on
\nthe Ulle & Rick podcast, the former Tour winner said, \u201cRemco has to learn
\nto deal with it. Even when things aren’t going well, people are following him.
\nRemco needs mental help.\u201d He then added, \u201cHis base wasn’t sufficient. He’s
\nsimply missing thousands of kilometres of training. His foundation wasn’t
\nstrong enough, and then you can suddenly collapse completely as a rider.\u201d<\/p>\n

There\u2019s truth in Ullrich\u2019s assessment of the physical base.
\nYou can\u2019t fake Grand Tour condition, especially when your competitors have been
\npreparing at altitude since January and you only returned to racing in
\nmid-April. Evenepoel\u2019s 2025 season, by his own admission, was built under time
\npressure. \u201cThe winter months were taken over by rehab and recovery… the goal
\ngave me focus, but it also created a lot of time pressure,\u201d he said in his
\npost-Tour statement.<\/p>\n

But the suggestion that he \u201cneeds mental help\u201d veers into
\nsensationalism. Evenepoel has shown resilience repeatedly, he has been able to
\nbounce back from many set backs before. He won the Brabantse Pijl on
\nreturn. He came back from near death at Il Lombardia in 2020. He recovered from
\na spring crash in 2024 to light up his debut Tour. At this year\u2019s Tour, he won
\na stage against the clock, and held the white jersey.<\/p>\n

It was only in the high mountains, after a fractured rib
\nfrom the Belgian Nationals and a bout of sinusitis, that he finally faltered.
\nWhen he stepped off the bike on stage 14, he called it \u201cone of the rawest, most
\nvulnerable moments\u201d of his career. \u201cI broke,\u201d he admitted. \u201cAnd strangely
\nenough, I\u2019m proud of it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Contrast that with the reaction to Wout van Aert this
\nspring. After a quiet start to the year, Belgian media pounced. Van Aert was
\ncalled finished, broken, and out of place. He then went on to win two of the
\nmost memorable stages of the Giro d\u2019Italia and the Tour de France. The
\nnarrative flipped overnight, clearly another Belgian in Van Aert was written
\noff far too quickly.<\/p>\n

\"Evenepoel<\/p>\n

Evenepoel and Van Aert have both suffered at the hands of the Belgian press in 2025<\/p>\n

The question is: will the same media extend Evenepoel the
\ngrace of a comeback?<\/p>\n

It\u2019s important to remember that Van Aert and Evenepoel both
\nentered 2025 with injuries. Van Aert began racing earlier, whilst Evenepoel had
\nto wait until mid-April. That\u2019s six months without racing at the highest level.
\nMerckx\u2019s claim that he\u2019s \u201cnot strong enough uphill\u201d ignores that Evenepoel
\nfinished third overall at the Tour last year, and has won a grand tour before.<\/p>\n

In many ways, Evenepoel is a victim of his own success. He
\nis naturally seen as one of the very few riders that can compete with the \u2018aliens\u2019
\nthat are Pogacar and Vingegaard. The problem this year was not lack of talent
\nor desire, it was a lack of foundation.<\/p>\n

As Horner put it: \u201cHopefully he has taken these last two
\nweeks off\u2026 and just rested on the couch\u2026 because if he did, there\u2019s time to
\nprepare for the Worlds.\u201d<\/p>\n

And therein lies the next chapter. The World Time Trial
\nChampionship and Road Race are still on the horizon. Evenepoel has three rainbow
\njerseys too his name already, and if he can regain his form he will be a
\nfavourite for a fourth and maybe even a fifth.<\/p>\n

Criticism comes with stardom, and Evenepoel carries the
\nburden of being a national figure in a country that still measures greatness by
\nthe Merckx standard. But perspective matters. He is 25, his palmar\u00e8s already
\nrivals most retirees. And if 2025 has taught us anything, it\u2019s that injury,
\npressure, and human limitations can derail even the best.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" This was a withering assessment from the most iconic name in Belgian cycling history, one that seemed…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":45264,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[569],"tags":[64,63,784,85],"class_list":["post-45263","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\/45263","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=45263"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45263\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/45264"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45263"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45263"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45263"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}