“The most perfect day ever” was how Remco Evenepoel (QuickStep-AlphaVinyl) described his feelings after stage 18 of the Vuelta a España where he outpowered leading rival Enric Mas (Movistar) and shot past earlier breakaway Robert Gesink (Jumbo-Visma) to triumph at the summit of Alto del Piornal.
In the process, the Belgian not only claimed his second Grand Tour stage win, his first Grand Tour summit finish victory and increased his overall lead. Evenepoel also delivered a major and timely reminder to his rivals of his climbing strength, prior to Saturday’s showdown mountain stage.
On the whole of the final steady 10-kilometre climb, in fact, from chasing down Mas on multiple occasions to dropping back through the tiny lead group, from powering away alone through the earlier breakaways halfway up to finally charging past Mas for the win, Evenepoel had all the appearance of a man with the full measure of the challenge in front of him.
Although the Vuelta does not finish until Sunday, Evenepoel remained adamant that he had yet to win the race outright. But as he put it, Thursday was “I think, a new achievement in my life,” and with three days remaining, barring huge upsets, his second stage win surely marked the point where overall victory in the Vuelta is all but inevitable.
“I’m not the winner yet because the Vuelta finishes in Madrid and as far as I know we are a far from Madrid still,” Evenepoel countered when it was suggested the race was over.
“For sure today was really good for the head and I won a stage, but I’m not the winner yet.
“When I attacked with seven and a half kilometres to go, it was a really hard attack because Enric was a bit further back and I wanted to surprise him. On gradients like today, you have to be on the wheel to close the gaps really fast. But I think Enric is looking very strong still and this is also why the Vuelta is not finished yet.”
Evenepoel denied that the race was more relaxed without triple winner Primož Roglič (Jumbo-Visma) to trouble him, although he did agree it was much more straightforward to keep one top rival, meaning Mas, under control than two.
“With or without Primož this was always going to be hard. It’s a pity he’s not here because in my eyes he’s one of the strongest GC guys of the last few years. But it is a bit easier to focus on one guy, not two: that would make my life much harder.”
Evenepoel is still very inexperienced in his new role as a Grand Tour race leader and he said that the main lesson over the last days has been “to always stay calm. Just like in the last kilometre when we still had 15 or 20 seconds to catch up on Gesink.
“Finally we came up to him with 300 metres to go and 200 metres for the line I went for it because I knew it was quite flat. I worked a lot in the winter on my sprint after a big effort, and it looks like it paid off.”
Evenepoel’s playing of the long GC game in the final week of the Vuelta saw him taking advantage of his rivals' battles for overall placings behind him on Wednesday’s ascent to Monasterio de Tentudia. And on Thursday that broader perspective involved Quick Step-Alpha Vinyl opting to let the early break to move ahead, as Evenepoel said, “because that way the time bonuses are gone.”
However, QuickStep's strategy had to change because UAE and Astana-Qazaqstan became embroiled in a ferocious battle with GC contenders João Almeida and Miguel Angel Lopez, bringing the overall favourites group back into touch with the early move, at which point Evenepoel received a different team order.
“At the end Klaas [Lodewyck, sports director] said I was going with Enric, that was the moment I made a click and said to myself, 'now you’re going for the stage win as well.' Because winning a mountaintop finish in the red jersey is amazing,” Evenepoel recounted.
“I think it was a great race from the team and it was a perfect day: the most perfect day ever.”
