Remco Evenepoel 'ready to attack the Tour de France' after Vuelta a Espana rollercoaster - Jens Voigt
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Published 20/09/2023 at 10:32 GMT
Three stage wins were not enough to secure Remco Evenepoel another Vuelta a Espana title as Sepp Kuss claimed victory. However, Eurosport expert Jens Voigt was impressed with Evenepoel's showing and thinks he could challenge at next year's Tour de France. Voigt also explained how he thinks Evenepoel can improve after his performance at the last Grand Tour of the season.
What next for Kuss after 'life-changing' Vuelta victory?
Eurosport expert Jens Voigt believes Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-QuickStep) has all the right qualities for a tilt at next season’s Tour de France after showing his class in the latter stages of the Vuelta a Espana.
Evenepoel went into the event as defending champion and stormed to victory in Stage 3 on the first summit finale after outpacing Tour de France winner Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma) on the high-altitude finish in Andorra.
But he dropped down the general classification standings as a result of losing 27 minutes in the brutal hill climbs of Stage 13.
He responded in style to win Stage 14 the following day before scoring another victory on Stage 18, in the process wrapping up the king of the mountains title.
Voigt believes Evenepoel’s Vuelta rollercoaster will stand him in good stead for next season, and he is convinced the Belgian will be ready for big things at the 2024 Tour de France.
“He provided highlights and spectacles – he doesn't do average,” says Eurosport expert Voigt.
“He’s always spectacular no matter what, and I was pleasantly surprised by his comeback, the way he pulled himself out of the swamp by his own hair.
“I think he has made a huge step in his personal development and I think now he's really ready to attack at the Tour de France.”
Voigt admits that Evenepoel needs to work on some areas of his riding and points to his relative late entry into cycling after initially starting out as a promising footballer playing for PSV Eindhoven and Anderlecht in his native Belgium.
“Let's just look at the facts: he is 23 years old and has completed four major tours in his career so far," said Voigt, who won two stages of the Tour de France in 2001 and 2006.
"He won once, failed twice, collapsed once, but then spectacularly won three stages.
“Reliability still seems to be lacking – maybe it's because he played another sport for too long and didn't learn it from scratch. He seems to have difficulty digesting when things aren't going well, i.e. in a single stage. He loses almost 30 minutes and immediately goes into the leading group the next day.
“If he was physically bad, it wouldn't work.”
Voigt is adamant that Evenepoel is as good as anyone on his day and was only let down at the Vuelta when he dropped back on Stage 13 and lost a huge chunk of time.
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Evenepoel completes hat-trick of wins in Vuelta with solo victory on Stage 18, Kuss retains red
“[Tadej] Pogacar has won the Tour de France twice in the past four years and came second twice,” said Voigt.
“Vingegaard has triumphed twice at the Tour, finishing second the year before. The talent of Remco is just as great as the talent of the other superheroes.
“I place his problem more in the head, in the attitude, or in the ability to deal with crises. Cycling hurts like hell sometimes, but then you have to tell yourself that it hurts everyone else too. His track record is really mixed.”
Evenepoel showed his class at various points of the Vuelta and Voigt believes his overall showing across the 21 stages of the event was one of its many highlights.
“I found the Vuelta exciting – the battle for fourth, fifth and sixth place was also interesting,” says Voigt.
“But Evenepoel is an international superstar who is also being noticed. It was spectacular the way he walked into a group and accelerated like a moped. He helped make the Vuelta interesting and certainly helped the viewer numbers.
“Despite his slump, Remco was important for the race."
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