Lemko Evenpoel bowed his head and sportingly admitted that he was not strong enough to challenge Taddei Pogachar and the other overall contenders on Saturday's Tirreno-Adriatico queen stage.

The young Belgian was expected to challenge Pogachar in their first meeting in this week's stage race. However, while the Slovenian showed great talent day after day in Italy, Evenepoel had a seven-second lead in the opening time trial, only to be completely reversed on stage 6, Monte Carpegna.

Evenepoel started the stage, which featured two climbs of the so-called "Pantani climb" of Carpegna, 9 seconds behind overall leader Pogachar, but was surprisingly separated from him at 34 km to the finish. He struggled to stall, setting the fastest time on the final descent. However, Pogachar had already pulled away from the rest of the field to take another overall win.

The leader of Quick Step Alphavinil eventually finished 4 minutes behind, dropping him to 11th place overall.

"Today wasn't good enough," the Belgian wrote on social media Saturday night after not stopping to speak to the press after the stage.

On Sunday, he became more talkative before the final stage of Tirreno-Adriatico in San Benedetto del Tronto. He added that he did not have enough power to join the overall contenders.

"When you see how easily Pogachar got away, it's clear he was the best. At this level, you have to give 100%. If you don't, you pay the price," explained Evenpoel before the final flat stage.

"I'm not saying that on a good day I could have followed Pogachar, but I would have finished in the chase group or in the group behind him."

"It wasn't the day I had hoped for. Even in the valley with 60 km to go, my legs felt heavy. But I never gave up and kept trying to minimize the damage"

.

Earlier this year, Evenepoel dominated the Volta ao Algarve and appeared to be back to his best after a fall at Il Lombardia the previous fall that affected his 2021 season. However, he is still developing as a stage racer and faces an almost impossible task against Pogachar.

Pogachar, a two-time Tour de France winner with UAE Team Emirates, has peaked in the UAE Tour and is approaching his best form. He is only 13 months younger than Pogachar, but at a different point in his career path. At 22, he is still slim and needs to lose muscle mass in his upper body if he is to become a Grand Tour rider who can contend for overall victory at this year's Vuelta a España.

The riders suffered through a week of cold weather in Italy, especially on the Calpeña climb, where temperatures were near zero for much of Saturday. Evenpoel, however, admitted that the problem was a lack of high power rather than cold.

"It wasn't cold, so it wasn't a problem. I was able to push the power I needed, but I couldn't push the limits," he said candidly.

"There was no drama like in last year's Giro. I was able to keep my rhythm, but I needed another 30 or 40 watts on the climbs to run for the win, and on days when you're not 100%, you can't just push."

"We have to go over things again. It was going well and I was in a position to be on the podium. So I'm quite disappointed. It hurts. [Yesterday was an ideal test, but we failed. We want to learn from it and find something to prevent the same thing from happening in the coming races