Remco Evenepoel wore a COVID-19 face mask as he spoke to the 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Tour de France media in the Palazzo Vecchio in the Renais꧟sance heart of Florence, keen to avoid catching a virus so close to the start of his first Tour de France.
168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Lidl-Trek loꦛst Tao Geoghegan Hart to COV⛄ID-19 after the Critérium du Dauphiné and his teammates Mads Pedersen and Giulio Ciccone also caught the virus but are riding the Tour. Visma-Lease a Bike have returned to wearing masks after Sep🐲p Kuss was forced to miss the Tour due to suffering with COVID-19.
Evenepoel is not taking any risks but ♑🐠is not sick.
“It’s about 🅷being carefu꧑l,” he said from behind his red mask, sweating in the heat of the packed room.
“I don’t want to end the Tour like last year’s Giro. I wanted to feel a bit safer in the press conference. We’re going to have a lot of contact with people for a few hours during the team presentation, too🎶, so wearing a mask is just a caution. I don’t want to scare people that I’m sick, I’m fine, but I’m cautious.”
Evenepoel has won the Vuelta a España and other major races but admitted, with less than 48 hours𒊎 to the start of this year’s Tour, that he is starting to understand the ‘grandeur’ of the biggest race in the sport.
“Theꦑ first moment when I really started to feel the importance of the Tour was when I entered this room,” he said.
“It’s the first time I&🐼rsquo;ve seen so many people in a press conference. The team presentatio💃n will be big, too. But there’s no stress so far, and I feel pretty relaxed.”
The 24-year-old Belgian recently compared UAE Team Emirates to Real Madrid ൩in a soccer analogy and now described his Soudal-Quic🦄kStep team as an underdog.
“We’re an underdog team because we don’t have the big staꦿr riders like they 🍌have, but we have the mental strength and a lot of experience, too,” he said, showing pride in the eight-rider Soudal-QuickStep line-up.
“Yves Lampert is doing his fif✅th Tour, Mikel La💝nda is doing what seems like his 200th Tour and Moscon too. We have a lot of experience.”
Evenepoel set himself mod𓄧est but important goals for his Tour debut.
“A stage win and to make it to Nice would be a success, t꧒o ☂improve myself as a GC rider,” he said.
“I want to become a better rider compared to the best guys and pick up some results. But riding the GC is abꦓout three weeks, not two days, but we’re prepared for it.”
Even if Evenepoel endures a bad day, he will not ease up like he did during last year’s Vℱuelta. H🥂e will fight on and suffer.
“I’m here for a good GC result. My preparation for last year’s Vuelta was different, I didn’t feel the same. We’ll take a different approach here for sure and not let it go like that day. We’ll seeᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚ, but I h𝓀ope I’m not dropped again.”
Evenepoel said he was mentally ready for the testing gravel stage at the end of the first week and for the opening stag⭕e to Rimini and Bologna when the rolling terrain and late climbs of San Lౠuca near Bologna could see the Tour blow up very early.
True to character, Evenepoel spoke bluntly, especially about defending Tour winner Jonas Vingegaard and the way Visma-Lease a Bike appear to have played down his chances aft🍌er his terrible crash at the Itzulia Bsasque Country.
"If we believe the Visma team, he’s nowhere, they s🐬♔aid he’s not even here to fight for the podium. Their explanations are strange,” Evenepoel said.
“But it’s Jonas Vingeggard, so I th❀ink he’ll end up here to fight with the best and in the mix for the Tour de France victory for sure.”
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