Thomas De Gendt is one of the most experienced riders in the peloton at 37 years old. He has witnessed the meteoric rise of Remco Evenepoel firsthand. In a significant interview with the Belgian newspaper Het Nieuwsblad, he spoke about his young compatriot.
“He learns quickly from his mistakes. In his first Giro, he was chasing every bonus second. Now he only takes them when he can. He’s much smarter now. He’s clearly saving himself for the final week.”
Evenepoel is Smarter
De Gendt is impressed with Evenepoel’s racing approach. “I think he’s been racing very intelligently so far. He’s not attacking unnecessarily. He said in advance that he would race defensively for the first nine days, and he’s done so effectively.”
“Whenever possible, he tries to save himself. He’s good, isn’t he? In other years, he could have accelerated twenty kilometers from the finish, just to show how good he is.”
It can be said that Evenepoel is not a universally popular cyclist, even in Belgium. The world Time Trial champion is not without his critics. De Gendt believes this is unjustified. “Remco is a champion to be appreciated. For daring to express his ambitions, he may come across as arrogant in the media at times and receives a lot of criticism, but in real life, he’s different.”