Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe signed Remco Evenepoel last winter to inject the team with fresh Grand Tour talent. Although there were some doubts this spring about the Belgian’s ability to handle the three-week grind, he proved the naysayers wrong over the past month. And that has got team manager Ralph Denk dreaming (realistically): “I still want to win the Tour de France.”
The mustachioed German has taken another step closer to the top spot in Paris. Wilco Kelderman and Aleksandr Vlasov have both finished fifth before, Emanuel Buchmann came in fourth in 2019, and last year Florian Lipowitz finished third in the Tour de France. Evenepoel’s second-place finish marks a new milestone for Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe.
Denk is incredibly proud of Evenepoel. “He’s worked so hard for this—for this success. This is another step forward. Two years ago, he already finished third, but now, in addition to his second-place finish, he’s also won his first road stage here.”
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Remco Evenepoel on the Tour de France podium.
Evenepoel will race the Clásica de San Sebastián on Saturday. After that, we’ll take some time to analyse everything calmly. “Of course, the World Championships are still coming up, as is another Monument… ” Denk says, referring to the Tour of Lombardy. “We still have a few great goals this season, but so far I can tell you: as a team, we’re absolutely thrilled with this.”
“After that, we’ll analyse the situation and also talk to Remco: how does he see it himself, and what are his ideas for the future? In any case, this is the best result in the general classification of his career so far, and with us. We can all be very proud of that together,” said the team manager of the German squad.
In any case, the team spirit at Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe was strong— as Evenepoel also pointed out. “The entire team has once again shown—especially in the penultimate stage—that we’re not content with what we’ve already achieved, but have the drive to win. That’s what I mean by exciting cycling.”
Denk isn’t satisfied yet—quite the opposite, in fact. “It’s my dream to one day cross the finish line in Paris wearing the yellow jersey. The Grand Tours are definitely the races we want to keep focusing on,” the German assures us.
“It’s still a little too early to analyse everything. Fortunately, in modern cycling, we have plenty of data analysts who will dig deeper into it,” he laughed after Saturday’s stage. “We finished second here, but the gap to the leader is still big. I’m not going to go around saying we’re going to beat Pogačar next year, but we’re going to work on it.”
