Evenepoel: 'I have to keep focused, feet on the ground' in bid for Tour runner-up honors
Remco Evenepoel touched on a variety of topics in a rest day press conference on Monday at the Tour de France, where he now sits second overall after Jonas Vingegaard abandoned the race on Sunday.
"I have to keep focused, feet on the ground, and work for my spot, defend it with everything I have in me," Evenepoel said, while acknowledging that actually challenging Tadej Pogačar – who said after stage 15 that he expects Evenepoel to be a "pain in the ass" in the final week – is not likely.
"Maybe he means for Del Toro's podium spot, but I have no idea what he actually means," Evenepoel said of Pogačar's comments. "I don't think Tadej needs to worry about anyone. I'm just going to try to ride the third week of my life."
In that pursuit, Evenepoel noted that he will be particularly focused on his sleep in the days to come, especially considering the possibility for an early anti-doping wakeup call.
"I always try to go to sleep as early as possible, because a regular doping test can also take place from 6 am," he said. "That is already quite early. Now it is actually a kind of reality check, a sort of alarm bell going off. Because of that, I am going to pay extra attention to going to sleep on time."
