Remco Evenepoel doesn't see himself challenging Pogacar for Tour de France, it's amazing "just to be close to him"

Remco Evenepoel has won two Tour de France stages in a row: on Sunday he conquered the Plateau ​de Solaison and on Tuesday he gave a masterclass when he won Stage 16, an individual time trial, 28 seconds faster than his main rival, Tadej Pogacar, and over a minute faster than all the other riders. He took a great victory for his country on Belgian National Day, but said that his victory was bittersweet when he knew that his teammate from Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe, Florian Lipowitz, had crashed.

"That's very unfortunate, It's like a bittersweet pill to swallow with this victory" Evenepoel said (via Reuters). "He will be ⁠very ​missed in the team. It's a big shame ​for us as a team to lose him because he was obviously doing a very good Tour ​de France. It's an extra-sad moment."

Lipowitz was fifth before starting Stage 16, but has withdrawn from the race suffering a collarbone fracture. Jonas Vingegaard from Team Visma, who was second, also suffered a crash on Saturday and withdrew, so now Evenepoel is the best positioned to finish second in Tour de France.

Pogacar leads the race, and Evenepoel is second 4:32 minutes behind. The third in the General Classification is Isaac del Toro, who is 2:19 seconds behind Evenepoel, so the Belgian has a great position to finish second, and that's all he thinks: he doesn't see himself capable of challenging Pogacar for the title.

"Honestly, no", he said if he was thinking of catching the Slovenian. "I'm just focused on my own spot. I mean, ​Tadej is on his way to win a fifth Tour de France. It's ​just amazing that I can be a bit close to him." Remco Evenepoel won Vuelta a España in 2022, his only Grand Tour victory, and has also won three UCI World Championships in 2023, 2024, and 2025.