Remco Evenpole, whose Quick-Step-Alfavinir won in Liège-Bastogne-Liège to save the Spring Classics, said he was riding his bike at his best for the first time since his horrific crash on Ile Lombardia at the end of 2020.

In Liège, he pulled away from the peloton on the Côte de la Redoute with 29km to go and won the Roche aux Faucons solo, with a strong chase group unable to do anything behind him. [His victory was the first for Quick-Step Alphavinir in the Spring Classics season since Fabio Jacobsen's late February win on the Courne Brussel-Coone.

The misfortune struck again on Sunday, when world champion Julien Alaphilippe left the race after a group crash with 62km to go, but Evenepoel was unrivaled in La Redoute, giving Quick-Step the big win it had been craving.

"Today I realized that the best Lemko was sitting on my bike," Evenepoel said at the post-race press conference.

"After the crash, it took patience to feel the best Lemko back.

"I had to work really hard to get back to this level. You can have all the talent you want, but you always need your head and the will to keep working hard and improving every day. Last season we had a lot of ups and downs, so it was really tough and hard mentally to always be at the top and to always be motivated to ride the bike.

"It was a really rough time. Everyone on the team and my family knew it. In many ways I couldn't find myself anymore, and there were many moments when I was crying for no reason. But I'm happy that with this trophy in my hands, all the negativity is gone and replaced with positivity

"[This year] was completely different from last year. Back then, I always felt stressed and unsure of myself because I felt like I wasn't the Lemko I wanted to be. What I have felt in the past weeks and months is that the real Lemko is back. So today I was relaxed all day, I wasn't stressed, I didn't panic when my opponent came close to me in the final. So I was really relaxed all day today, I wasn't stressed, and I didn't panic when they came close in the final.

Evenepoel is so familiar with the route that he joked that he could have run the final with his eyes closed, having trained for years on the La Doyenne road. Having trained La Doyenne for years, he called La Doyenne, with its stinging attack at the top, one of his favorite climbs in the world, and knew that if he could feel it in his legs, his competitors would suffer there.

"I started feeling my legs a little bit on La Redoute," he said. 'I started feeling my legs a little bit in La Redoute. If you have a group, you can stop and work together, but if you're alone, you have to go. I was alone, so I'm happy to finish alone."

"It's no secret that we had some rough races during the spring classics. 'It's not that we've had a bad season, it's just that we've had a bad Classic. Looking at the results of the last two weeks, he has finished in the top 10 in Roubaix, 6th in Amstel, 4th in Flèche, and 1st this season.

Evenpoel said that encouragement from team boss Patrick Lefebvre lifted the team's spirits and took some of the pressure off them before Liege, their last chance for a big spring win.

"At the team meeting yesterday, Patrick said to everyone, 'You know what? 'Look, whatever happens tomorrow, we're going to stay calm,' he said. ' That made us relaxed and allowed us to come out here and start the race."

"I think what Patrick did for us yesterday was a really beautiful gesture towards us. He calmed us down and showed us that he believes in us no matter what happens and that he supports us even if we are going through a difficult time.

Evenpole said that Liège-Bastogne-Liège was his "dream race" and one that he had always wanted to win in his career. Before the race, the team would have planned a strategy for him and his co-runner Alaphilippe, but Evenpoel said he always had a strategy in mind and he executed it in La Redoute.

"I'm really happy to win like this. It's my dream race, it's a race I've wanted to win at least once in my life. To win it on my first attempt is crazy and unreal."

"I'm proud to have finished the race with the plan I had in mind since yesterday. Instead of going solo right out of La Redoute, I was going to go in a group and finish in the Roche aux Foknes sprint.

"I felt really good all day, especially up to Bastogne, where the team helped me a lot. It was important to stay out of the wind and stay out of trouble. Luckily I was able to stay out of trouble, but some of the others were unlucky with bad crashes. I hope everyone is okay. I think it was a perfect day to win in this way."

Evenpoel, who has four wins this season, including time trial victories at the Volta a Valenciana and Volta ao Algarve, plus the overall at the latter, said he has changed into a new type of rider while recovering from his crash at Lombardia in 2020.

In addition to the endurance he shows in the time trial and the last 29km of Liège, he said he has gained an explosiveness he did not have before.

"I knew from the winter and from the last few races that I was more explosive than before, and my time trial ability has improved. So by combining the two, we showed a pretty brutal attack today and were able to keep the power high for a long time," Evenpoel said.

"Of course, you can't go fast for 30km because there is a headwind with 30km to go. But in the Basque Country I felt I could attack to make a gap on the pack and I wanted to try that today."

"After my crash at Lombardia, I needed some time to recover and get my muscles back like before. Maybe I've become a new type of rider.