The clip is short and raw. Evenepoel is on the tarmac, his bike down. A female police officer stationed on the roadside picks it up and brings it back to him, but holds it facing the wrong way. Evenepoel, still half on the ground, gestures sharply at her before grabbing the bike himself, turning it, and remounting.
He had crashed moments earlier on the first corner of the descent off the Možjanca climb, on the penultimate ascent of the day, with roughly 36km left to race. The Belgian had just countered an attack by Ciccone near the summit when he lost the front wheel.
“It was a bit of a tricky situation. The second last time on the climb, I think I put a nice attack, but I went a bit too fast in the corner and I just slipped away,” Evenepoel said afterwards.
The 100 meters that saved his race
Belgium’s team work pulled him back to the Ciccone group within kilometers, and he attacked again with 32km remaining. Only Ciccone could follow.
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Into the final corner, Ciccone jumped him on the inside and opened a lead of three bike lengths with 500m to go. Evenepoel came back at him in the final straight.
“Then in the sprint, it was looking a bit… Well, I thought I was not going to get it anymore, but then I saw him slowing down quite a lot with 100m to go, and I just came just over him on the finish line. I’m super happy, super proud of this performance.”
The photo finish went to the Belgian. Christian Scaroni took bronze for Italy at 59 seconds, with Primož Roglič 10th at 1:19.
A tough week after Montréal
The win came seven days after Evenepoel finished a disappointing 12th at the World Championships road race in Montréal, a result he admitted had weighed on him into the week in Slovenia.
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“It was honestly a really tough week for me after the deception of the Worlds. I think it was playing more in my head than I’ve been showing.”
The 196.3km race from Ljubljana to Šenčur covered five ascents of the 2.1km Možjanca, a climb that averages close to 10 percent. The crash came on climb four.
“It’s a big relief to be back on a good level today and to complete my set of championship jerseys. It feels amazing.”
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