Remco Evenepoel kicks a water bottle in frustration after stopping for the second time
The UCI Road World Championships Kigali 2025 are over. But one incident is still dominating the headlines – why did Belgian international Remco Evenepoel end up in a rage, and final solitude, both incidents beamed live on global channels that were covering the race.
The dream of a historic double gold was unraveling in the most agonizing way possible for Remco Evenepoel.
The smooth, powerful cadence that had secured his time trial world title just days before was gone, replaced by the jarring chaos of a broken bike and seizing muscles.
On the punishing slopes of Mont Kigali in Rwanda, a single pothole triggered a catastrophic chain of events—a mechanical meltdown, a frantic and failed pit stop, and a very public, furious meltdown—that transformed Evenepoel’s calculated pursuit of victory into a desperate and ultimately heartbreaking salvage operation for a silver medal he never wanted.
The Initial Impact
The crisis began not with a rival’s attack, but with an innocuous patch of damaged road. During the pivotal ascent of Mont Kigali, a key climb on the circuit, Evenepoel’s front wheel slammed into a deep pothole.
The impact was immediate and devastating. According to his mechanic, the force caused his saddle to violently “tip over” and “completely collapse.” This was not a minor adjustment issue; the entire structure of the saddle failed, leaving it unusable.
Worse yet, a change of bikes was not instantly available. Evenepoel was forced to continue riding in this compromised state. His teammate, Victor Campenaerts, later highlighted the severity of the situation, noting it was “very undesirable at the most crucial moment of the world championships, especially without communication.”
Isolated from his team car and unable to relay his predicament, Evenepoel endured what his mechanic, Dario Kloeck, described as “a very long time” struggling with the broken component.
The unnatural, slumped position destroyed his biomechanics, causing his powerful hamstrings to cramp severely. “I couldn’t even produce 400 watts,” a frustrated Evenepoel later confessed, a staggering power deficit for a rider of his caliber.
The First Change and the Second
When he finally received his first bike change, the operation was smooth. Mounting his spare Specialized, he set off in a furious chase to rejoin the disintegrating peloton. For a brief moment, it seemed the crisis had been averted.
However, just ten kilometers later, disaster struck a second time. Convinced the saddle on his new bike was improperly positioned and causing sharp pain in his lower back, Evenepoel was forced to stop again.
This second pit stop was where frustration boiled over into pure, unadulterated rage. The Belgian team car was not immediately in sight.
For approximately 45 agonizing seconds, Evenepoel stood helplessly at the roadside, a spectator to his own world championship dreams slipping away.
As local fans looked on, the tension became too much. In a moment that flashed across broadcast feeds worldwide, the former star soccer player unleashed his fury on an innocent plastic water bottle, sending it flying with a powerful, penalty-kick-style punt.
The Mechanic and Cousin Responds
The drama was compounded by a unique family dynamic within the Belgian camp. The mechanic at the center of the storm, Dario Kloeck, is not only a trusted team staffer but also Remco Evenepoel’s cousin.
In the aftermath, Kloeck expressed genuine bewilderment regarding the second bike’s issue. “We measured it three more times, but there was no problem,” he stated to HLN, suggesting that the saddle height was identical to his other bikes.
His comments to the press carried the tone of a relative trying to explain a family member’s outburst, characterizing the reaction as being born of “mostly frustration” over the situation rather than a definitive mechanical fault, while also promising a full investigation.
Remarkably, after his third bike change, Evenepoel displayed the incredible form he had carried into the race. He fought his way back to the chasing group and, in a stunning display of power, launched a blistering counter-attack that blew all his remaining rivals off his wheel in a solo pursuit of the lone leader, Tadej Pogačar.
This effort proved his statement, “I felt like I was in excellent shape,” was not an empty excuse. However, the effort of chasing back not once, but twice, after the mechanicals had taken a catastrophic toll. The revelation that he had been “apparently sick for a few days” prior to the race makes this Herculean effort even more impressive.
“I felt better after I changed bikes again and got back into the race,” Evenepoel told Sporza. “But if you sum it all up, there are a lot of moments [that went wrong]. Chasing twice is a bit much.”
His assessment was bleak. When asked about the race-winning attack by Pogačar, he was unequivocal: “Without bad luck, I could have followed Pogacar’s attack.”
A Portrait of Desolation
The final, telling scene of his defeat was one of profound dejection. Immediately after crossing the line, he slumped against the barriers, the weight of the silver medal around his neck feeling like an anchor.
He then found a solitary spot away from the immediate chaos and sat on the ground for several minutes. Still clad in his sweat-soaked, grimy race kit, his head was bowed and his shoulders slumped under the immense burden of what might have been.
It was a portrait of utter desolation. It was unclear if he was silently weeping or simply lost in a meditative trance, mentally replaying the pothole, the collapsed saddle, the 45-second wait, and the kicked bottle, trying to make sense of the cruel mechanical lottery that had just stolen his dream.
The silver medal would forever taste of frustration.
For Remco Evenepoel, the 2025 World Championships in Rwanda would not be remembered for a brilliant solo victory or a triumphant double, but for a catastrophic mechanical failure and the furious, helpless rage that followed.
He came for gold, and left with a story of “what if.”
