Tour de France, the perfect ellipsis of Remco Evenepoel

Remco Evenpoel 's one hundred and seventy-one centimeters have the ability to distribute themselves perfectly on a time trial bicycle, drawing a perfect ellipse capable of moving through the air in the least invasive way possible.

The Belgian glided through the Calvados wind for thirty-six minutes and forty-two seconds, his progress excluding any movement other than his legs. His torso and shoulders immobile, like few others, the best time trial specialists. An elegant and refined, yet powerful, stride. Above all, highly effective. In Caen, he was the fastest, celebrated his second victory at the Tour de France , and, above all, put a huge gap between himself and all the other riders with ideas of the podium. A good way to shake off any anxiety while waiting for the Pyrenees . A good way to say, with facts, "I've taken a step towards the podium."

Remco Evenepoel pedaled incredibly hard. He got the advantage he wanted, maybe even more. He would have settled for less than the minute and nineteen seconds he handed to Matteo Jorgenson and Primoz Roglic, or the minute and twenty-one minutes lost by Jonas Vingegaard . His face was stunned when he saw the Dane's time on the scoreboard. Then, after his shock, his eyes stared into space, while his canines tightened on his lower lip. Cycling is a sport where disappointments often turn into a desire for revenge and have the ability to stimulate strength of mind and imagination. Jonas Vingegaard forced himself to attack the Tour.

Because Tadej Pogacar was the only one in the group to pedal at the pace of Remco Evenepoel . Sure, his shoulders moved more and his torso swayed following the movement of his legs, but cycling is not a contest of elegance. The Slovenian left Evenepoel sixteen seconds at the finish, maintaining a forty-nine-second lead in the general classification. On the awards stage he wore red polka dots (best climber), green (leader of the points classification), and above all yellow. His forty-first career yellow jersey. Only Jacques Anquetil (50), Chris Froome (59), Miguel Indurain (60), Bernard Hinault (75) and Eddy Merckx (96) were better than him.

For a long time, watching the other runners cover those thirty-three kilometers, colored by an (almost) uninterrupted snake of faces, T-shirts, caps, and flags from more or less every corner of the world, Edoardo Affini hoped that the wind would change direction slightly, that it would strengthen just enough to keep him sitting in the seat dedicated to the fastest man to the finish line . He spent the day as the best in class, getting up only to make room for Remco Evenepoel. He finished the afternoon third overall. He threw up his arms and sighed, "What can you do? It's too strong," before walking away.

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