“It was the most difficult decision I had to make in a long time, but the only right one,” said Evenepoel, who broke the rib shortly before the start of the Tour at the Belgian Championship. “I was empty and broken, but strangely enough it is also a moment that I am proud of. It requires strength to show that everything is not always going as you would like. Sometimes your body has other plans. That moment showed that I am even a person.”
Evenepoel started the fourteenth stage as number 3 of the rankings. He did, however, already have a wide behind leader Tadej Pogacar. “After my heavy fall in December, everything was dominated by one goal: being ready in July. I could focus on that, but it also brought a lot of pressure with it. I felt that I was constantly lying behind the facts and never had the good feeling on training,” Evenepoel writes.