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No one on the team Jumbo Visma liked him: Primoz looked at him with ironic scorn, Kuss just laughed, Grischa thought he was spoiled and arrogant and DS M. Zeeman recollected the time he rode near their training camp and looked at them defiantly. Remco was la bete noir, the guy who dared to fight with Wout van Aert, the King of Jumbo Visma, during the Worlds Championship at Leuven and provoked a real crisis inside the Belgian team; his name was trouble. Everyone at Jumbo disliked him except Jonas. The pale Dane was more and more curious about Remco, even if his team advised him to avoid contact with le petit monstre. His few experiences with Remco were good. He met Remco last year at Tirreno, Tadej was there too. They didn’t talk then, as he was only interested in being with Tadej. At Itzulia, he seemed friendly and they shook hands briefly. One year after, they were not rookies anymore, Jonas ended up winning the Tour and Remco was the reigning winner of La Vuelta.
This year Jumbo Visma arrived at La Vuelta with a perfect plan: crush all its opponents and that included Remco. The team was even stronger than their Tour team and their racing style was going to be more aggressive than ever to match Remco’s power.
-This is personal- said Primoz, laconic. He didn’t want to go into details, but he considered that Remco snatched him the last Vuelta with dirty tricks, he even thought that Remco was partly responsible for his unfortunate crash with Fred Wright that dislocated his shoulder and forced him to abandon La Vuelta last year. He still felt hurt, and now it was payback time.
-We are going to smash Remco, guys- declared Primoz to his team mates before making a toast with Spanish wine. The team replied with loud cheers, full of enthusiasm. Jonas didn’t say a word, he just raised his glass, nonchalantly, and drank a sip of La Rioja wine. He licked his lips and paused a moment to think about Remco, the spoiled child, the menace, the little bastard. He had heard too many tales about Remco, but he hadn’t seen the real Remco. He expected that in these three weeks of racing he could know him better.
After a while, Jonas left the dinner table with a sour taste in his mouth. It wasn’t the wine, he just felt rejected and lonely. This feeling started a few weeks ago, the last time he met Tadej, and it felt worse that day after he checked his instagram feed and saw a photo of the beautiful slovenian with Jasper Philipsen, smiling and holding hands, a sunny, alpine landscape in the background.
-Why is he doing this?- he asked himself. ‘We were supposed to be…’ He couldn’t dare to admit to himself what he and Tadej were. He had a crush for pretty Tadej, it was certain, and he thought that the ever smiling slovenian felt the same… or at least something similar. Now he wasn’t sure anymore. He had tried to reach Tadej by phone or whats app, but to no avail. The last time they met, Tadej told Jonas that he needed time to recover from his new defeat against him at Le Tour. He seemed in pain, he was not only wounded physically, but also his pride had been smashed. Although Tadej kissed Jonas gently, Jonas felt a pang in his heart while they were kissing. It wasn’t like this before. It was a bad omen.
-I’ll call you when I’m in Spain- Jonas told him, still full of hope. As soon as he arrived, Jonas called Tadej and there was only silence. He was shocked to see this photo, he remained frozen for a while, tears began to fall down his sunken cheeks.
Jonas knew that he had to apply extreme measures to get back Tadej’s attention. He wasn’t sure what to do, he was desperate. In that state of mind, he could only make awful decisions. To make things worse, he sneaked at night to the hotel bar to get drunk. While he was at the bar, he decided to do something daring and unexpected, not very much like his introverted, shy character. So Tadej is flirting with Jasper disaster, he should do the same with Remco. It was his immediate choice. His team was talking obsessively about Remco: Remco did this, Remco said that, so he couldn’t stay away from this obsession. He wouldn’t need to publish photos on instagram, all the sports media was in La Vuelta and they would cover his sudden, close friendship with the Belgian prodigy.
After making this plan, Jonas went back to his room. His plan made perfect sense to him. He remembered that Remco was eager to be friends with him and Tadej last year at Tirreno, he looked very interested to be part of their conversations. Remco gazed at Tadej with respect and at him with a friendly smile. Jonas thought that he would like to see Remco smiling at him again. Before falling asleep, he remembered the very first time they met. It was at the tour of Pologne, 2020. He was still fighting at that time with his panic attacks and his bouts of depression while Remco was already a winner. They didn’t greet each other at that time. He just recalled that he was attracted by Remco’s looks, his-at that time- spiky blond hair, his confident, big smile. He slept seeing the image of Remco, his smile, his hair, his eyes…