‘I’m not a robot’: Remco Evenepoel, while announcing his return to training on Tuesday, denounced ‘false and negative comments’ after his retirement from the Giro d’Italia following a positive test at the Covid-19.
“First the positive: after medical examinations today, I received the green light to resume training and set myself new goals,” wrote the Belgian world champion on his Facebook page.
Big favorite of the Giro, Evenepoel had left the race on Sunday May 14 following a positive test for Covid-19. He returned the next day to Belgium, “sick as a dog”, according to the boss of his Soudal-Quick Step team, Patrick Lefevere.
This abandonment “was clearly one of the most difficult setbacks of my young career”, declared the 23-year-old Flemish, deploring “the brutal end of what could have been a great story” after “six months of preparation for this sole purpose, sacrifices, long days in the rain, far from home”.
“Ups and downs are part of our job and I accept it without any problem. What is difficult to accept are all the false and negative comments that I received after leaving the race,” he added.
In Italy, several former champions, such as Francesco Moser, have criticized his choice to leave the Giro on the eve of the rest day, when nothing today forces cyclists to give up after a positive test for Covid- 19.
In a vitriolic editorial, the Gazetta dello Sport, which belongs to the RCS group which organizes the Giro, accused Evenepoel of having disrespected the organizers by announcing his abandonment before warning them.
The sports daily also wrote that the Belgian, supposedly unhappy with his meager lead in the general classification, “would have had a hard time accepting a defeat and preferred to leave the race with the pink jersey and two victories in both times”.
“I’m not the kind of person who will hide or is afraid of losing,” Evenepoel said on Tuesday. “The last few days have been very difficult emotionally because of these comments,” he insisted. I will be using it on my bike, preparing for my next goals and races. I would just like to remind everyone that I am not a robot, but also a normal human being, a husband, a son, a partner, with normal feelings.
