Remco Evenepoel’s ‘great champion’ dream at risk from crashes – Jonathan Vaughters on Giro d’Italia mayhem

Remco Evenepoel’s dream of becoming a “great champion” is at risk if he fails to navigate difficult days in the saddle, suggests EF Education–EasyPost boss Jonathan Vaughters.

Some riders vented their frustration at the slippery conditions, with Vaughters – who joined The Breakaway gang on Thursday – saying the roads were “like riding on soap”. However, the American said there were valid arguments from both sides as to whether the race should have been neutralised.

“You’ve got riders who are upset about the conditions, you’ve got riders who are upset about the crashes, they say the course was unsafe…” he told Eurosport.

“And then on the other side you’ve got the old school thought that comes to my head: ‘well, if you’re going to win a Grand Tour, or if you’re going to be a great champion in the world of cycling, you have to know how to navigate a day like yesterday without getting hurt and without losing time.

“And I would put a premium on ‘without getting hurt’. If we look at Remco Evenepoel, he didn’t lose any time. But we’re not going to know exactly how hurt he was until a few days from now.”

Evenepoel’s dream of a second Grand Tour title looked in disarray when he was unseated after the rogue dog ran into the bunch with 152km remaining on the run from Atripalda to Salerno.

The Belgian favourite stayed on the tarmac for over a minute, prompting serious concern, before belatedly clambering to his feet and re-joining the race. His Soudal-QuickStep team-mates worked diligently to lead their man back into the peloton, which was dawdling along in miserable conditions.

He looked to have survived the day until he was wiped out again in the closing stages, with the 23-year-old pictured gesticulating angrily with his team car and fellow riders when he returned to his bike for a second time. He crossed the line battered and bruised minutes after winner Kaden Groves (Alpecin–Deceuninck) – but got the same time after falling inside the final 3km.

Vaughters continued: “I wish I had the answer. You could say ‘neutralise the race’ or ‘stop the race’. But then where do you draw the line?

“Or do you say: ‘no, it’s the guy who can thread his way through these soapy conditions on the road, unlike Remco Evenepoel, that deserves to win the race because whoever they didn’t injure themselves and will be great two days from now and were a better bike handler.’

“The riders in the peloton, if they wanted to keep yesterday completely safe, with 30km to go they could have all agreed ‘let’s ride slow to the finish’. So that can happen.

“But there is always one rider who wants to win and there is always one rider that wants to take advantage of the fact that he’s actually really good in slippery conditions and all the other riders aren’t.

“So then we tend to deflect it and say it’s up to the governing bodies, or the race organiser, to prevent riders from hurting themselves. Which a lot of time I agree with and if it was my riders on the ground yesterday, I would be standing up their arguing that the UCI needs to do something. But it’s a more profound argument than that.”

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