There is a particularly juicy story going around about Remco Evenepoel. This with ‘thanks’ to Robert Gesink, the Dutchman who waved this off as a professional cyclist. He recalls a striking moment from the Vuelta.
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Verlakkerij Evenepoel?
This concerns the <a href="https://www.archysport.com/2022/08/alejandro-valverdes-last-tour-of-spain/" title="Alejandro Valverde's last Tour of Spain“>2022 Vuelta, the Tour of Spain, which Evenepoel also won. In the 18th stage Gesink was in the lead, Evenepoel and Mas in pursuit. Where, according to the Dutchman, Remco made a promise to the Spaniard from Movistar. “The two of them were giving a lot and they overtook me 200 meters from the finish,” Gesink recapitulates.
“A day later Mas comes to me. He said Evenepoel told him he could win if he drove for it. And Mas: ‘So yes, I drove for it. Sorry man, I’m really sorry. Remco then puts me on the spot,” the Dutchman told De Rode Lantaarn.
However, Evenepoel came up with a completely different story (to save his skin?). “Mas had barely finished his words and then Evenepoel came to me. He said that Mas had told him that he could win the stage, as long as ‘that Gesink’ did not win.”
Still ambiguity
And so Gesink didn’t know what to think about the whole story, although the disappointment over the missed stage win must have been the biggest disappointment for hetm. But last summer there was a sequel to the story.
“Mas came to me again,” says Gesink. “He apologized again for what had happened. That’s why I tend to believe Mas a little more than Evenepoel. But they both said separately that they had been done by the other,” there is still no certainty.
