“When Remco went and nobody reacted, I knew it was going to be very difficult to come back. I said beforehand that he was one of the most dangerous men that you could possibly allow to take off,” Van der Poel said of Remco Evenepoel’s decisive attack from the group of favorites. Where the Belgian rode to the lead group and eventually soloed to gold, Van der Poel was trapped from that point on.
“Dylan (van Baarle, ed.) did well, by keeping the gap as small as possible. I then played all-or-nothing one more time on Montmartre and I got Wout with me, but of course he didn’t ride because Remco was in front,” the Dutch leader pointed to Wout van Aert, who reacted to everything Van der Poel did anyway. At Sporza: “That’s his right of course. The second time the two of us were away again, but with Remco ahead, it made sense for him not to ride with us.”
