It was described because the ‘bike change of the 12 months’ by Het Laatste Nieuws. And definitely when Remco Evenepoel was using solo in the direction of a near-certain second Olympic gold medal within the Men’s Road Race, solely to puncture with simply over three kilometres to go, the potential of a serious last-minute catastrophe abruptly seemingly loomed increased than the close by Eiffel Tower.
However, whilst Evenepoel put his bike on the aspect of the highway and turned to yell ‘Bike, bike, bike’ for help, assist was at hand, within the form of the Belgian staff automotive and notably mechanic Kurt Roose.
Normally a part of Evenepoel’s Soudal-QuickStep staff, Roose leapt out of the automotive, rushed over to the rider with a substitute bike and at last offered a sustained push to place him safely again in control for Olympic success, with most of his time hole nonetheless intact.
Crisis averted – however because the skilled mechanic stated later, pressure had already been excessive within the Belgian staff automotive even earlier than the puncture.
The race commissaires had taken their time to let the car comply with Evenepoel as soon as he attacked and opened greater than a minute’s hole with 15 kilometres to go. And then the occasions out on the highway, near the Louvre museum solely brought about that pressure to rise even increased.
“The staff coach Sven Vanthourenhout was on the wheel and he yelled at me ‘Kurt, bike!’, Roose advised Dernière Heure.
“The stress was already notable within the automotive as a result of the race commissaire had simply refused to allow us to get behind Remco till the hole reached a minute, and he or she clearly didn’t have the identical data as we did.”
“I jumped out of the automotive to seize Remco’s reserve bike which was the primary on the rack and ran as much as him with it.”
“He was actually stressed” – Evenepoel later commented that he had simply seen an indication saying he solely had 25 seconds on closest pursuer Valentin Madouas (France), when in actual fact the hole was greater than a minute – “and he was yelling at me to rush up,” Roose commented.
“But that was regular, there was a second gold medal within the house of per week in play.”
Roose commented later that he had pushed him in addition to doable to get him restarted, whereas attempting to remain calm.
“Panic is all the time a nasty advisor,” he stated. “The solely factor to do is take motion.”
Showing a powerful flip of velocity as he pushed Evenepoel again as much as the best tempo he may handle, Roose stated afterwards with fun that “My dash isn’t dangerous for a 51-year-old lad, is it?”
“Jogging on occasion is a passion of mine however I’ve at the moment obtained an injured foot and I’ve placed on some weight, which I’ll should try to lose.”
However, injured or not, Roose definitely confirmed sufficient velocity within the finale of the lads’s highway race to offer some greater than well timed help to the Belgian staff star – and within the course of assist tip again the stability in Evenepoel’s favour, too, from a doable last-minute defeat to a second landmark victory.
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