Why Remco Evenepoel 'didn’t want to lose' sprint to Primoz Roglic in 'battle of wills' at 2023 Giro d'Italia

Remco Evenepoel «didn’t want to lose» the «mental and physical» battle with Primoz Roglic during the third stage of the Giro d’Italia, according to Eurosport's Breakaway team. The Belgian beat Roglic to the intermediate sprint and gained crucial bonus seconds to extend his General Classification lead over the Slovenian by a single second.

Ad While Evenepoel’s performance only gave him a small boost in the overall standings, Eurosport’s Dan Lloyd believes it could give him a mental edge over Roglic. Giro d'ItaliaClimbing tests await on Stage 4 of Giro as riders go above 1,000m2 HOURS AGO “He didn’t want to be beaten,” Lloyd said.

“You could see him looking over his shoulder in the last few hundred metres towards the intermediate sprint waiting for the jump from Roglic and his team-mates, and it did eventually come from Koen Bouwman. “Remco went immediately — he’s only taken a second on Roglic but he’s taken three on every other General Classification rider and it might seem strange to hear him say he wants to give the jersey away on tomorrow’s stage, but he still wants to get as much time as possible on his key rivals.

“It’s only rivals that he knows won’t be up there at the end of three weeks that he’s going to allow up the road tomorrow.” When asked whether those types of moments are as much of a mental battle as they are physical, Robbie McEwen chimed in. “It’s about the honour,” he said.