The bar has always been set a little bit higher for Remco Evenepoel.
Early success brought him acclaim, but it also created more expectation. He could win as much as he wanted, it seemed, but never enough to prove himself.
Even when Evenepoel won the Vuelta a España two years ago, the thesis persisted in some quarters that he wasn’t really a Grand Tour rider at all. The question lingered after a 2023 season where COVID-19 cut short his Giro d’Italia and a ‘jour sans’ ruined his Vuelta defence. It even endured as far as his Tour de France debut this summer.
Tadej Pogačar and Jonas Vingegaard were, by Evenepoel’s own admission, operating on another level here but the Belgian was full value for his podium place, navigating the three weeks without any obvious crisis and coming home with a buffer of almost ten minutes on fourth place.
Without the men he referred to as “the two big boys,” this would have been a Tour debut for the ages.
“Honestly, this podium is one of the highest achievements of my career,” Evenepoel said in his final Tour de France press conference at the Nice Palais des Expositions late on Sunday evening.
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