The three-way battle that some people were expecting to develop between Tadej Pogačar, Remco Evenepoel and Jonas Vingegaard at the European Championships ended before it could even start, as the Dane got dropped with 109km to go in the elite men’s road race.
Vingegaard was the biggest unknown from the so-called ‘Big Three’ when it came to one-day racing, but it quickly became clear that the Vuelta a España champion was feeling the effects of his long, busy season.
As the Slovenian and Belgian teams upped the pace on the second rep up the Saint Romain de Lerps climb, Vingegaard faltered and would end up a non-finisher as Pogačar powered to a dominant 75-kilometre solo win and Evenepoel again – as was the case at the World Championships – came off second best.
“There are 80 men left, and he gets dropped – even at the first acceleration. Then it’s because he hasn’t trained. He hasn’t been on the bike enough in Denmark [since the Vuelta], but he might have a different explanation.”
“It wasn’t because I didn’t want to, but it was because I couldn’t. I don’t know if that was decisive for what happened today, or if it was just the fatigue that’s in the body. I’ve not had the best preparation for this. It was more to try to see if I could do a race – and to compete in the national colours.
“I had hoped for more, but sometimes you don’t have the day – and I didn’t have that today. So the question is whether it was a bad day for certain reasons, because I’ve had a tough schedule, or whether the…
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