Following the Tour of Flanders, Remco Evenepoel has also finished third in his second Monument whilst wearing the Red Bull – BORA – hansgrohe jersey. At Liège–Bastogne–Liège, the 26-year-old won the sprint from a large chasing group behind Tadej Pogacar and Paul Seixas.
Contrary to plan, Remco found himself, alongside Nico Denz, in a huge breakaway group after just a few kilometres; the peloton initially failed to chase them down, allowing the group to build up a substantial lead. However, as the race entered its decisive phase, the cooperation within the break fell apart, leaving the field to start from scratch with 80 kilometres to go.
On the Cote de la Redoute, which time and again proves decisive, with 35 kilometres still to go, there was simply no stopping Pogacar and Seixas. Alongside Jai Hindley, who also reached the finish in the large chasing group, Remco fought to thwart any further breakaway attempts, ultimately sprinting onto the podium in Liège.
Having completed the first phase of his season with seven victories, including the Amstel Gold Race, as well as two podium finishes in the Monuments, Remco is now set to take a break. After that, his preparations for the Tour de France will begin with a high-altitude training camp and the Tour Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes.
“It was a strange day. I found myself in the break. It was by accident. I was just in the front of the bunch and it split. And then it was a bit strange.
Third in the end is pretty okay result. I think I had to kind of recover a bit from being in the break and then I gave it the maximum to go for the podium. Beeing again on the podium is a good feeling.”
— Remco Evenepoel
“It was a very fast start today and 53 guys went up the road. We had Nico and Remco in. It wasn’t really planned but suddenly it happened. The Peloton wasn’t really reacting so we decided just to keep Remco and Nico there to see what would happen. We got a big gap but the moment they really had to keep that distance everybody started to look to each other and then we lost a lot of time.
In the end we weren’t able to follow Pogacar and Seixas, but still able to fight back after that and still do a big result, third in a monument, with the help of Jai. We came for more, but we have to be happy with what we have.”
— Klaas Lodewyck, Sports Director
