Remco Evenepoel was displeased at the finish of stage 6 of the Tour de France, revealing that his Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe co-leader Florian Lipowitz refused to give him a lead-out as they fought for third place into Gavarnie-Gèdre.
The Belgian highlighted how the work he had done earlier in the season for the German wasn’t paid back when he asked for it on Thursday, stressing how a full debrief will need to be had tonight.
Evenepoel was visibly frustrated after crossing the line in fourth, losing the sprint for the final four bonus seconds to Isaac del Toro, who had already launched Tadej Pogačar to a stunning solo win from the Col du Tourmalet. He then had to go straight to doping control, but did eventually speak to the Flemish press outside a team car, explaining his anger.
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“I had asked for a lead-out, and I didn’t get one,” said Evenepoel to Sporza.
“Yes, I was angry, and rightly so. In the Volta a Catalunya, I rode at the front for him for 30 kilometres. I asked him to do one kilometre of work at the front, and that wasn’t possible. That made me angry, and that will need to be discussed thoroughly tonight.”
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Lipowitz had gone over the top of the Tourmalet ahead of Evenepoel in a group also containing Paul Seixas and Del Toro, but on the long descent before the gradual final climb to the line, Evenepoel joined his teammate.
This meant Red Bull, alongside Lidl-Trek with Juan Ayuso and Mattias Skjelmose, had the numeric advantage, but even still, the cooperation was poor. By the time the first big chase group reached the line, they had lost 2:57 to Pogačar and 19 seconds to Jonas Vingegaard.
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“UAE went extremely fast. We were already riding pretty fast ourselves, but they went extremely fast,” he said, after Pogačar’s men lit up the 17-kilometre ascent at full gas.
“It was pretty OK. I did what I could do. In any case, I wasn’t planning on overdoing it at the end of the Tourmalet, because a long descent was still waiting. I knew that with my descending skills I could still catch up to the group in front of me.”
Evenepoel wasn’t just unhappy with his co-leader, though, also highlighting Lidl-Trek’s unwillingness to pull straight away and give them the best chance of chasing down the two leaders or at least limiting the damage to Pogačar. He was left baffled.
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“I understand why Del Toro and Sepp Kuss weren’t riding, but Lidl-Trek was there with just the two of them and they didn’t want to ride right away,” he added.
“I thought: ‘What do you have to lose? If we work together, maybe we can get as far as Jonas’. But a few riders wanted to drag again.”
Evenepoel said 19-year-old Seixas was also confounded by the lack of cooperation: “He also said that he didn’t understand why some riders were dragging themselves along. I told him that this is the Tour and that it wouldn’t be the last time.”
Even in spite of the drama, former Tour podium finisher Evenepoel is in striking distance of matching that result as he now sits fourth after the first mountain stage, 3:30 down on Pogačar but just seven seconds from Del Toro in third.
“Yes, a lot is still possible, but Jonas is also in good shape,” he said of the potential for occupying that second spot. “We shouldn’t forget that.”
Red Bull said at the start of the year that Evenepoel and Lipowitz were a combination that could flourish in the fight against the Tour’s dominant force, but at the first time of asking, it’s ended in drama and call-outs. How will they cope in the next mountain stages, or will the legs simply decide?
It won’t be a story to miss in any case, with Lipowitz also well in the GC fight, 30 seconds in arrears of his co-leader.
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