Remco Evenepoel needed three words to describe men’s Grand Tour racing.
Asked at the end of the Tour de France what it would take for him to finally win it, the Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe rider offered the only answer he thought was honest: “Pogi not starting. At least for the next few years, it’s that simple.”
The line went round cycling social media within hours, replayed by fan accounts and picked up by mainstream sports feeds.
Evenepoel finished 6:26 behind Tadej Pogacar in the general classification, with Isaac del Toro third at 9:42.
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He is the first Belgian to reach the second step of the Tour podium since Lucien Van Impe in 1981, a 45-year gap.
Pogacar joins the four
Pogacar’s fifth yellow jersey ties him with Eddy Merckx, Bernard Hinault, Jacques Anquetil and Miguel Indurain. No rider has more.
He sounded closer to relieved than triumphant.
“I have no words, really. It’s been incredible. The atmosphere has been spectacular,” he said in Paris.
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Asked what came next, the Slovenian answered:
“Now I have to look for another goal.”
Vingegaard was gone by stage 15
The one rider who might have made this a race was already off it.
Jonas Vingegaard, second overall at the time, crashed on the exit of a roundabout with around 21km to go on stage 15 to Plateau de Solaison on July 19 and abandoned.
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His teammate Davide Piganzoli told Eurosport that a race motorbike had taken a poor line into the corner just ahead of the peloton.
From that point the top of the standings became a UAE Team Emirates arrangement.
Pogacar in yellow, del Toro in the white jersey as best young rider, and Evenepoel alone in second.
One race Pogacar has never contested
The next Grand Tour is the Vuelta a España, which starts in Monaco on August 22 and finishes in Granada on September 13. Pogacar was asked whether he would ride it. “We’ll see. Let’s enjoy this moment,” he replied.
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For Evenepoel, that ambiguity matters. He won the Vuelta in 2022.
If Pogacar stays away and the Belgian is on the startline in Monaco, three words become a testable claim rather than a punchline.
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