Time trial world champion Remco Evenepoel (Belgium) rued not being able to complete a World Championships double in the men’s road race on Sunday, after a saddle malfunction saw him cramp at a key moment and never return to the front of the race.
After his time trial domination, Evenepoel was targeting a double on Sunday to go with his Olympic double from last year, but a bike issue saw his race come undone on the key Mont Kigali climb.
Unfortunately for him, Mont Kigali was the moment the race exploded, with eventual winner Tadej Pogačar (Slovenia) launching a move that riders like Isaac del Toro (Mexico) and Juan Ayuso (Spain) could follow, but the cramping Evenepoel could not. He eventually finished second.
He then had to stop and change yet again, having to wait for the car this time, and becoming increasingly frustrated as he lost even more time whilst Pogačar pulled out his lead.
Evenepoel said at this point, when he fell to an almost two-minute deficit and had to fight back through the cars to even join the chasing group, he did consider giving up.
“I looked up to the time gap and it was like 1:45 or something, so at that point I was like ‘why keep going?’ Because it was still like five laps to go or something like that. So that was a difficult moment,” he said.
“But then we came between the cars after the barrage was made, so I came back to the group and with my second bike change, it felt better again, and the legs were turning, and I had no cramps at all anymore. So then I felt that there was some more power and still something to do.”
However, once he did get back, he seemed to realise that the best…
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