Renaat Schotte is doing his utter most "stinky" best to keep his claim alive that Remco "once" told him that he would not be riding for GC, and that he believes him when he said he would work for Almeida. The fact that Almeida might very well leave the team in a few months and still hasn't signed a contract extension hasn't crossed his mind, or that we are now 8 weeks later, and a lot in Evenepoel's prep and form might have changed. Or simply the fact that his teammates so far are contradicting that, and two team directors have said Remco has a free role and can see how far he gets.What's the general mood in belgian sports news, cautious/cautiously optimistic/very optimistic?
So there is the part of the press that keeps quoting this old interview by Schotte (since it was only published a week or so ago, while actually 2 months old), and there is the part of the press that uses their brain and think Remco will indeed try to find out how far he can go. Nobody is saying he can or is going to win, but you can feel the anticipation. De Cauwer, basically the Flemish godfather of cycling, said he feels he can podium from the info he's been fed.
He's not serious, he's jokingly claiming there's no proof VdP or VA would beat him in a mass sprint because that scenario hasn't happend yet.
Damn.