Evenepoel: “Not everyone can say they are second in the Tour”

He Belgian Remco Evenepoel (Red Bull Bora), second place in the Tour de Francewas happy with his place on the podium, but at the same time a little disappointed for not having been able to win the stage at the top of the Alpe D’Huez.

“Because of my winning mentality, there is some disappointment. I’ll probably deal with it in half an hour,” Evenepoel said at the finish line.

Evenepoel distanced himself from Tadej Pogacar in the final phase, who waited for his partner Isaac del Toro.

“The climb should have been two kilometers longer. I had an excellent day. It was very difficult to reach this level. Second in the Tour, not everyone can say that,” said the double Olympic champion, the first Belgian to occupy the second place on the podium since the 80s, when Lucien Van Impe (1981) He won silver after the Frenchman Bernard Hinault, winner of that edition.

More calmly, Evenepoel, winner of the Return 2022assimilated that his second place “is something wonderful.”

“It was very difficult to reach this level. With the necessary patience and hard work behind the scenes, we finally achieved it. I am extremely satisfied with the result,” he said.

“Second in the Tour, not everyone can say that, especially in recent years. There have only been two, Vingegaard and Pogacar. I am incredibly proud after all the work of the team and of everyone around me: Oumi, my family, my parents. “It’s fantastic,” he stressed. Evenepoel announced that in the last stage in Paris he will have “another opportunity to win.”