{"id":591898,"date":"2026-04-07T19:56:12","date_gmt":"2026-04-07T19:56:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/591898\/"},"modified":"2026-04-07T19:56:12","modified_gmt":"2026-04-07T19:56:12","slug":"how-evenepoels-race-plan-was-partly-thrown-out-after-just-80-kilometres-because-of-bahrain-victorious-team-car","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/591898\/","title":{"rendered":"How Evenepoel\u2019s race plan was partly thrown out after just 80 kilometres because of Bahrain Victorious team car"},"content":{"rendered":"

Remco Evenepoel<\/a> certainly did not waste his debut in the Tour of Flanders<\/a> on Sunday. The Belgian home favourite more than held his own in the Flemish Ardennes, but after 278 kilometres of racing he had to settle for third place. And that came despite not everything going smoothly for him and his Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe team.<\/p>\n

Australian rider Jarrad Drizners, who joined the team from Lotto over the winter, may not be the first name that comes to mind when people talk about Red Bull, but within the squad everyone is full of praise for his positioning skills. From the Van Dijke brothers to Evenepoel and Van Poppel, they all want him in the line-up when the biggest prizes are at stake.<\/p>\n

That made it all the more frustrating that he had to abandon after barely 80 kilometres with what is believed to be a broken collarbone. \u201cWe lost Jarrad after he was touched by the Bahrain car. From that moment we had to adjust, I won\u2019t say gamble, towards the first passage of the Kwaremont. We did not want to sacrifice two or three riders just for positioning there,\u201d sports director Klaas Lodewyck explained.<\/p>\n

\u201cLosing Jarrad was a real blow, because he is very important,\u201d Gianni Vermeersch agreed. Mick van Dijke added: \u201cFrom that point on it was already up to me. We had to keep Remco in position and I think we managed that. But it definitely cost a lot of energy,\u201d said the rider from Colijnsplaat.<\/p>\n

Continue reading below the photo!<\/p>\n

Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe still looked very strong even without Drizners<\/p>\n

\u201cI can only be satisfied with the race we rode and the result that came out of it,\u201d said Evenepoel. \u201cThe team was super good. We had three really important points: the Eikenberg, the Molenberg and Berg ten Houte. We wanted to start those climbs in the first ten positions and that worked every time, although at Berg ten Houte it was no longer really necessary. I can only thank my team-mates.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cRemco felt good and I think we hit the Molenberg with three guys among the first five. We did that really well, and after that it was up to Remco, Tim and Gianni. I think that was perfect teamwork. It\u2019s just a shame we lost Jarrad. It is to our credit that we still had three riders in the first group after the selection on the Molenberg \u2014 we handled that very neatly,\u201d Van Dijke said on behalf of both himself and his brother Tim. \u201cAfter that I did not see much more of the race. I could not stay with them any longer myself, but that is logical.\u201d<\/p>\n

Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe explain why Van Dijke and Vermeersch did not attack<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom the Eikenberg onwards, the plan was to be in the first ten and then the race exploded on the Molenberg,\u201d said Vermeersch, who himself made the first group of 15 together with Tim van Dijke. \u201cIt was pretty logical for us, with three riders in a group of fifteen, to help keep things rolling. From a tactical point of view, it was not ideal to attack, because then everything would stall and the peloton could come back.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cFor us it was actually a good situation,\u201d Lodewyck said. \u201cWe told them: if everyone contributes, then we contribute as well. You can try to ride away, of course, but then you also burn a rider. With all due respect to a Van Dijke or a Gianni, it was wiser for them to stay on board there and give Remco the feeling that he was not on his own.\u201d<\/p>\n

Evenepoel comes up just shortOn the Oude Kwaremont and eventually especially the Paterberg, <\/a>Evenepoel then had to let Mathieu van der Poel and Tadej Poga\u010dar go, although he came close to rejoining them several times. \u201cIt was impressive. That accumulation of short climbs one after another was really hard, and I especially noticed on the Paterberg that I was still lacking just a little bit. If I have to take one lesson from this, that is it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen Mathieu came to the front, I felt like I could come back. But as soon as Tadej took over again, that changed immediately. If I had been able to get back on, the whole finale would have changed for me. Now it was absolutely brutal, with the final blow coming just before the Steenbeekdries.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read on below the video!<\/p>\n

\u201cI am happy,\u201d Evenepoel continued. \u201cThis is the result we had hoped for, so we can be satisfied. Tadej did not want to let me come back \u2014 that was what was missing. Mathieu did not seem to have a problem with it, but I am sure Tadej did. It was a very hard race, especially in terms of endurance. I was constantly close to getting back, but in the end it was game over.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe team was very strong, just as it has been in the other Flemish classics. Third was the highest possible result after an honest race. For a first Tour of Flanders, this was very good, because experience really helps you here,\u201d Lodewyck said. \u201cThere are still a few things we can fine-tune, but first we should enjoy this third place.\u201d<\/p>\n

And then… a special trick in the form of Paris-Roubaix? \u201cWe have played with your feet enough already, but it could still happen. The chance is not very big, though,\u201d Evenepoel concluded.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Remco Evenepoel certainly did not waste his debut in the Tour of Flanders on Sunday. The Belgian home…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":591899,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[569],"tags":[64,63,784,172195,39733,8396,85,167262],"class_list":{"0":"post-591898","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cycling","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-cycling","11":"tag-idl-productions","12":"tag-red-bull-bora-hansgrohe","13":"tag-remco-evenepoel","14":"tag-sports","15":"tag-tour-of-flanders"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/591898","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=591898"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/591898\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/591899"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=591898"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=591898"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=591898"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}