Lemko Evenpoel discussed his high-speed crash in Iturria Basque, revealing that he will ride his bike indoors for the first time next week and that the Tour de France and the Paris Olympics are his major goals for 2024.

In a podcast with the Soudal Quick Step team, Evenpoel revealed that he crashed at 81 km/h on a downhill and lost control of his bike on a bump in the road surface.

He suffered a broken collarbone and a cracked scapula, but considers himself lucky compared to Tour de France winner Jonas Vingegaard, who was hospitalized for 12 days with a punctured lung, and Jay Wein, who suffered a broken neck vertebra.

Evenpoel has since spent time with his family and wife, Oumi, eating ice cream, recovering, and watching bicycle races. He will soon return to work and is already thinking about the Tour de France and the Olympics.

"I can't complain. Every day I feel better and less pain," Evenpoel said.

Evenepoel rushed his return after breaking his hip at Il Lombardia in 2020, forcing him to rest further. He knows the importance of rest and recovery.

"I'm pretty relaxed and trying to enjoy things. After the weekend, I'm looking forward to getting back into the pro cycling life, both on and off the bike, and starting to build up my body again."

"I worked on my body with physio work and some simple gym work. I'm going to try the rollers soon, especially since the Belgian climate doesn't allow me to ride outside yet."

Iturria-Basque's crash sparked a great deal of debate about race safety.

Evenpoel offered his own take on what happened.

"If you look closely at the bike, you can see that I took the wrong line, that it was a bumpy surface, and that I lost control of the bike.

"Then I hit a bump and lost control of the bike. I checked my files and I was going 81 km/h in the corner. In slow motion it looks easy to control, but if you look at the helicopter footage you can see how fast I was going in the woods and on the grass.

"It would be easy to say later that I should have just kept going in the corner, but everything was just too fast, It was so fast that before I knew it I was sitting up and holding my shoulder

"I'm glad all the riders are okay. My injuries are minor compared to the other riders."

Evenpole admitted that it was difficult to watch the Liège-Bastogne-Liège race on television, which he had won the past two years. La Doyenne is once again a big target, but he is already trying to qualify for the Tour and win gold in the time trial and road race at the Paris Olympics.

"I was lucky that my injury was stable, my fitness was not too low, and I was able to start again right away. It's also a blessing in disguise," he explained.

"I know I still have a lot of work to do and I need to improve my form a lot, but I felt good in Paris-Nice and in the Basque Country. The next few weeks will be the same high altitude training camp and then it all depends on my form, either the Criterium du Dauphiné or the Tour de Suisse. Then it's time for the Tour.