Remco Evenepoel gives up after the effort at the Tour de France!

Remco Evenepoel gives up after the effort at the Tour de France!

Vienna, AT - On July 19, 2025, the Belgian cycling professional Remco Evenepoel broke off his participation during the 14th stage of the Tour de France. Despite a promising position in third place in the overall classification, the athlete was invalidated and climbed around 100 kilometers from Pau to Superbagnères from the bike. This decision was made, after noticeable in the course of the stage, especially in the Pyrenees, where he lost a lot of time on his main competitor Dadej Pogacar and Jonas Vingegaard on Friday. According to [vienna.at] (https://www.vienna.at/olympialer-evenepoel-gab- der-Tour-de-fre-France-France-France-France-France, Evenepoel is a double Olympic champion and winner of the Vuelta 2022, and had already occupied the third overall in 2024 on the tour.

The resignation of even -time came after a difficult course of the tour, in which he showed a much -noticed performance in the individual time trial on the fifth day, but was increasingly isolated and under pressure in the mountains. Problems increased after his key team mate Mattia Cattaneo left the race during the 7th stage due to severe injuries. Cattaneo had already experienced a violent fall on the fourth day, but did not recover from the consequences in time. The lack of other important drivers, such as the Basque Mikel Landa, significantly increased the challenges for Evenepoel, since in crucial moments of the races, he often had to assert himself against the superiority of the teams, UAE Emirates and Visma-Lease a bike [Velo] (https://velo.outsideonline.com/road/road-racing/tour-de-france/evenepoel-suffers-disaster-dack-in-tour-fre-France- Quest) reported.

team dynamics and challenge

The absence of key players has severely limited Evenepoels support. Teammates such as Valentin Paret-Peinre and Pascal Eenkhoorn will have to take on responsibility in the coming weeks, while the performance of the entire team Soudal Quick-Step is questioned. The speculations about even Evenepoel's future within the team are increasing, with rumors about a possible change of change to Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe, while earlier speculation about engagement at Ineos Grenadiers loudly Velo are missing.

The Tour de France not only stands for personal success, but also shows the development of professional cycling as a whole. A look at the number of participants and their average features shows that the physical condition of the drivers has changed over the years. While in 2020 the average participant was 30 years old and 1.80 m tall, the average weight is around 68.2 kg despite increasing height in recent decades. Together with a decline in the middle BMI from 22.1 (1990) to 20.9 (2020), this shows significant trends in cycling, as explained in [cycling racing bike] (https://www.radsport-rennrad.de/race/tour-de-france- Development/).

The discussion about the commercialization of cycling and its effects on competitiveness increases. Jonathan Vaughters, an influential votes in professional cycling, calls for equal opportunities to create a “Salary Cap” for teams in order to make sport fair and interesting in the future. These topics show that cycling faces challenges that go beyond the individual competition.