Remco Evenepoel came away from his Tour de Suisse debut with stage victory in the final time trial and lessons learned from his 11th place finish in the general classification.
The Belgian entered the race among the favourites for overall victory, but his challenge faded when he conceded over two minutes on the punchy finishing circuit in Novazzano on stage 5.
“I learned a lot this week, including on the stage where I lost two minutes. That was really a complete off day for me, physically but also tactically,” Evenepoel said. “As a team, we just didn’t have the ‘balls,’ if I can say it like this, to take the responsibility to take the race in our hands and just give the maximum to win or even just to stay up there with the big guns.
“That’s what we’re going to take into the future, that we have to be awake on local laps like that. If that doesn’t happen, then I probably finish on the podium of the GC, but that’s life. I will take it with me into the future and towards the Vuelta.”
Evenepoel moved back up the standings on the final two days in the mountains and climbed two more spots in Sunday’s time trial to finish the Tour de Suisse in 11th place overall, 4:04 behind winner Geraint Thomas (Ineos Grenadiers) and 2:48 off a podium berth.
The 25.6km course in Vaduz saw a three-way skirmish between Evenepoel, Thomas and Stefan Küng (Groupama-FDJ) for the stage win. Evenepoel was two seconds down on Küng at the midway point, and he overhauled the European champion on the headwind section back to the finish. After averaging over 54 kph, Evenepoel beat Thomas by three seconds, with Küng a further seven seconds back in third.
“I had a pace plan that I couldn’t keep up with in this heat, but I was still able to keep quite a hard and even power, and I think that’s what made me win this time trial,” said Evenepoel, who praised the display of his closest rival on the day.
“I’m surprised and amazed by how Geraint is riding at the moment, I think he’s going to be really ready for the Tour. He looks very good. He looks really strong. I’m just proud to be able to win from a guy like him, he’s a big idol for me.”
Evenepoel will race the time trial and road race at the Belgian Championships next week before taking a month away from competition to finetune his preparation for the Vuelta a España. He is unlikely to line out in another stage race before the Vuelta, with the Clásica San Sebastian (July 30) the only other event currently pencilled into his schedule.
“I will go to San Sebastian and try to take another win there [after 2019 – ed.], but then I probably don’t race again until the Vuelta, because I feel I perform better when I’m really fresh at the start of the race,” Evenepoel said.
“It will be important to be as fresh as possible as the Vuelta will be decided in the last two weeks. I’ll just try to start the Vuelta as fresh as possible focus a lot on the opening team time trial with the guys and also on my individual time trial on stage 10.”
