Remco Evenepoel has lashed out at former teammate Tim Declercq (Lidl-Trek) for holding up Soudal-QuickStep during the stage 3 team time trial at Paris-Nice.
Evenepoel said that Declercq lost his team time in one of the tight corners on the 26.9km course but that he wasn’t the reason they lost to UAE Team Emirates after leading them at the halfway point by 17 seconds.
Ultimately, it was the weather that most affected the Belgian squad and each team that started in the second half of proceedings during stage 3, with the rain and wind making it much harder to keep speed while navigating the corners on the run-in to Auxerre.
“He [Declercq] kept riding in front of us in a technical corner and did not move out of the way,” said a frustrated Evenepoel to Sporza and HLN after the stage.
“A thank you to him. That was really nasty. Tim may have been an ex-teammate, but you don't do something like that. Did he do it on purpose? I hope not, but it is possible.”
Evenepoel took to his Strava page once the dust had settled on the stage, taking back any blame he had placed on Declercq in the heat of the moment and confirming that it was poor conditions that had hindered him and his team.
“Good job from all of us! Bit unlucky with weather conditions, but also that is part of our beautiful sport,” wrote Evenepoel.
“And no, Tim Declercq didn't make us lose the race today! I was a bit overhyped after the stage and I don’t want to blame him for riding a bit in our way. The Commissioner should have warned him so he knew we were coming close to him.”
Declerq has since spoken to Het Nieuwsblad and confirmed an apology had already been made to him personally by Evenepoel, but that he was disappointed his former teammate could think it was possibly on purpose.
“It was unintentional but it can happen, but I don't see what I could do about it,” said Declercq.
“In principle, that car should have said to me: they are there. Then I would have stepped aside because this is the last thing I would do. Remco should know me as a person, that I would never do something like that on purpose."
Evenepoel and Co. were well on track to win the stage at the intermediate time check, clocking in at 18:55, 17 seconds faster than eventual stage winners UAE Team Emirates.
But once they entered the barrier section and final run to the line, the clock was about to turn red and Evenepoel was leaking time to GC rivals on the Emirati team - João Almeida, Brandon McNulty, Jay Vine and Finn Fisher-Black.
“We had a 20-second lead over UAE at the intermediate point, and you can hardly lose any time on the way down. But it's simple: the rain has fallen, and the wind changed,” Evenepoel said.
“There are some technical corners in the last kilometres. If you can take them at full speed, it saves 4 to 5 seconds per corner. It wasn't going well for us today. If you see that we outclassed everyone in the first part of the time trial proves that our team is super good.”
Soudal-QuickStep trainer and DS Koen Pelgrim did admit there was more to it than just a few wet corners, however, with more analysis still to be done after they ended up 22 seconds down by the finish line, shipping nearly 40 seconds in 13 kilometres.
"Rain never plays to your advantage. Then you lose time in the corners anyway, but not the amount of seconds we now lose to the winner UAE. So we can't just blame the weather,” Pelgrim told Sporza.
Despite the minor disappointment for Evenepoel, he did still gain big time on some of his close rivals challenging for the overall title at Paris-Nice.
Primož Roglič (Bora-Hansgrohe) similarly lost time in the rain and now sits 36 seconds down on the Belgian heading into the first mountains stage tomorrow.
His Bora-Hansgrohe team were two seconds down on Soudal-QuickStep at the intermediate check but faded with only three riders left to complete the second half.
“We are indeed gaining time on all teams that have ridden in the same conditions,” Pelgrim said with overall mixed feelings after a strange day in the wet at Paris-Nice.
“In that respect, we got the best out of our race.”
