After yesterday's crisis, Remco Evenepoel was no longer the same. Today during the race he was not feeling well and, after consulting with his sports directors, the Belgian decided to stop and withdraw, but before doing so, he wanted to pay homage to a young fan by the roadside, giving him the last water bottle he had on his bike.

"Simply, it wasn't working - were Remco Evenepoel's first words outside the team bus - There was nothing to be done. One bad day is possible, but three bad days in a row is something that's not right."

The two-time Olympic champion communicated constantly with the team and when he was on the Tourmalet, his team manager Klaas Lodewyck advised him to stop. "I spoke with the team and Klaas told me to stop. That was the only right decision. I could have continued pedaling, but who knows, the bad feeling could have continued for months and my body would have suffered. I would have risked arriving in September unable to do anything."

Speaking about Evenepoel's physical condition is also Tom Steels, the sports director to whom the former world champion is very close. "It was the third consecutive day Remco wasn't feeling great. As I said this morning, you hope for the best and hope things change at some point, but nothing changed and he didn't let his legs suffer."

The two-time Olympic champion's agony had begun on Thursday on the Hautacam and then continued with yesterday's mountain time trial at Peyragudes and finally today, in the last Pyrenean stage ending at Superbagneres, he chose to definitively stop.

"I think it was wiser not to continue and simply give himself time to recover well. He still has goals this year. But if he had decided to continue in those conditions, then the rest of the season would have been lost."

There is no illness, virus, or muscle pain behind Evenepoel's withdrawal, simply his body did not give the right responses and, when something like this happens, stopping and finding the right balance is the best thing.

Evenepoel's season does not end with the Tour de France and he still has important goals to achieve. The Soudal-Quick Step champion still wants to wear the world champion jersey and his next goal will be Rwanda, where he will try to win again.

"Remco was very disappointed to leave the Tour, because he is the world time trial champion and was world road champion and has two Olympic golds. I think he will now focus on his next goal and aim high, but to do that you must stop if you feel something is wrong. Remco is not himself now, it's already the third consecutive day he hasn't felt well. You must be very careful not to cross the limit, otherwise you risk losing months instead of days. We still need to understand exactly what happened, but stopping is the best thing, because continuing could make him sick or something else could happen, worsening the situation. We'll see, but for now we hope to recover quickly and start training again."