One week in, Remco Evenepoel seems to be taking well to this Tour de France business. It should hardly come as a surprise. A man whose every pedal stroke has been analysed to the nth degree since he was a teenager might be well equipped to cope with the unblinking scrutiny of cycling's grandest stage.
When Evenepoel met with the press via a video call on Monday's first Tour de France rest day in Troyes, he was asked the age-old question that gets lobbed in the direction of every debutant on this race, namely to outline what he had liked and disliked about his first steps on Planet Tour.
"I've liked it all," Evenepoel smiled. "When everything is going well, you don't have bad feelings. Up to now, I'm enjoying it, it's all going well. Maybe the rain is the only thing I haven't liked, but the stages in Italy were magnificent, and the time trial win was magnificent, too. The race situation yesterday was good. There hasn't been a moment where I've said to myself that I don't like it."
After an opening week like that, what's not to like?
Nine stages in, Evenepoel lies second in the Tour de France overall standings, 33 seconds off Tadej Pogačar and 42 ahead of Jonas Vingegaard, and he has already achieved one of his stated objectives by claiming victory in the time trial to Colombey-les-Deux-Eglises on stage 7. He impressed in his management of the mighty Galibier on stage 4 and he looked assured on the gravel stage around Troyes on Sunday.
In the immediate aftermath of the stage, Evenepoel had decried Vingegaard's conservative tactics, reckoning that he might have put a hefty downpayment on a podium place had the Dane opted to collaborate with him and Pogačar when they broke clear on the Côte de Chacenay. "Maybe the whole Tour could have been decided," Evenepoel lamented. On Monday, however, he insisted that his goal remained a top-five finish in Nice, despite his fast start to this race.
"We are nine days into the journey, which means that there are still twelve stages to come. We are not even halfway through this Tour, so I am sticking to the same plan," Evenepoel said. "Anything can still happen. The Pyrenees are coming up this week. Next week, the Alps.
"The most hectic stages may be over, but the really tough stages are still to come. After the Pyrenees, we'll see where we are, whether we can focus a bit more on the podium. But at the moment we still have to keep that top five in mind. And keep both feet on the ground. It's just a matter of taking it day by day."
Even so, one senses Evenepoel's ambition in this race will not be entirely tempered by caution. Although he retains his belief that Pogačar is operating on a different level from the rest, Evenepoel remains eager to keep the Slovenian in his sights wherever possible and then see where that road eventually takes him.
"It's going to be pretty tough to beat Tadej, but we always have to push and believe in it. A bad day can happen to anybody," Evenepoel said. "We have to believe in our strength and in our own plans. Day by day, I'll try to finish as close as I can to Tadej, that will take me quite far in this Tour."
That philosophy stood Evenepoel in good stead last week on the Galibier, where he limited the damage when Pogačar attacked in the final kilometre, though he would pay for his caution on the descent that followed.
"On the Galibier, I was lucky there was a lot of headwind, so I could save energy, but I was third over the top, so that means the legs were there and I had a good feeling," said Evenepoel.
Tourmalet
The next test of those feelings might come in the Massif Central on Wednesday when the race tackles some 4,300m of climbing on the road to Le Lioran. Evenepoel has reconnoitered much of the Tour route since last winter, but the finale to stage 11 is a rare gap in his knowledge. By way of compensation, Greg Van Avermaet, winner at Le Lioran in 2016, is waiting by the phone to fill him in on the details.
"It was difficult to check it out because it wasn't close to any races I did, so I'll need a small chat with Greg about the last 50 or 60k," Evenepoel said. "It's a stage that doesn't look tricky but it's one where the fight for GC can be on, depending on the breakaway situation and all that stuff."
A more definite test will come when the Tour enters the Pyrenees on Saturday, with the race tackling the Col du Tourmalet and Hourquette d'Ancizan ahead of the summit finish at Pla d'Adet on stage 14. Evenepoel last raced up the Tourmalet at the Vuelta a España last September, arriving at the summit almost half an hour down on Vingegaard as he lost all hope of defending his overall title.
That sobering afternoon raised questions about Evenepoel's consistency, and later prompted Movistar manager Eusebio Unzué to note that the Belgian could win the Tour but "only if he's Remco for 21 stages out of 21." On Monday, Evenepoel shrugged off the idea that returning to the Tourmalet two weeks into the Tour carried a sense of foreboding.
"The positive thing is that I wasn't dropped on the Tourmalet that day, I was dropped on the Aubisque," Evenepoel said. "It's a different stage compared to the Vuelta, so you can't be stressed about it. I'm confident. The real tour will start on Saturday. You have to be ready."
To this point, at least, Evenepoel has seemed ready for everything.
