Remco Evenepoel has been preparing for the Vuelta a España all season, but he made a deliberate choice not to reconnoitre any of the mountain passes on the route. “Sometimes it can work against you if you have too much knowledge and know what to expect,” he said before stage 8. “You might get scared.”
The fearsome Colláu Fancuaya made its Vuelta debut on Saturday afternoon and Evenepoel had, of course, dutifully scouted the Asturian climb on Veloviewer beforehand. He knew all about its daunting statistics, but he didn’t appear to be unduly intimidated when he set his QuickStep-AlphaVinyl squad to work on the lower slopes of the ascent.
Evenepoel showed even fewer inhibitions when the narrow road pitched into a double-digit gradient in the final 4km. The red jersey, unsurprisingly, figured that attack was his best form of defence, and he set about whittling down the group of favourites with a bout of sustained pacesetting.
The low cloud swirling around the mountainside caused the television footage to cut out, meaning that the information crackling through Evenepoel’s earpiece from the QuickStep-AlphaVinyl team car was composed largely of guesswork. He decided to press on regardless, flying blind through the mist.
By the time live pictures were restored, only three men – Primož Roglič (Jumbo-Visma), Enric Mas (Movistar) and Carlos Rodriguez (Ineos Grenadiers) – were still with him.
“You know, in my radio they tried to explain me a bit, but I think they were a bit behind. In one moment, they said I was with 14 guys, but we there were only four or five or us, so I didn’t really know what the situation was,” Evenepoel said.
“In the last kilometre, I saw it was Primož, Enric and Carlos. Then at the finish, I looked at the results with my soigneur and I saw that only Enric and Primož were still on the wheel at the finish line, so it was a perfect day.”
There were shades of Tadej Pogačar’s effervescence in the final metres, when Evenepoel lifted himself from the saddle to outsprint Mas and Roglič for fifth on the stage, 1:20 behind winner Jay Vine (Alpecin-Deceuninck), but the effort was not purely for show. By then, the Belgian knew that every pedal stroke was putting time into the rest of his rivals.
In the overall standings, Evenepoel remains 28 seconds clear of Mas and 1:01 ahead of Roglič, but the Ineos duo of Rodriguez and Tao Geoghegan Hart are now the only other riders who lie within two minutes of his red jersey.
“I said that not losing time was the goal,” Evenepoel said. “But I think I took time on all except for the two most important ones, Primož and Enric.”
QuickStep pass first test
If the Colláu Fancuaya offered further evidence of Evenepoel’s rapidly-growing ease on the stiffest gradients, then the entire stage provided an examination of his QuickStep-AlphaVinyl squad’s ability to control the race from here to Madrid. Stage 8 brought the peloton into the rugged interior of Asturias, a sparsely-populated corner of the world that has left many a Vuelta leader hopelessly isolated in years past.
The early climb of Alto de la Colladona splintered the bunch, but Evenepoel had a full complement of teammates by his side again over the other side. His team took the race in hand on the approach to the final climb, with World Champion Julian Alaphilippe setting the pace early on and Ilan Van Wilder performing a striking cameo as Evenepoel’s last man.
“We showed today what a real GC team is all about, but it’s far from over. We’ll have to do this for another two big weeks, starting from tomorrow,” Evenepoel said. “The start was really hard, but everybody kept fighting and came back after the descent, and we controlled the race perfectly. We wanted to keep the gap at four minutes and that’s what we did.
“I had a perfect lead-out train on the beginning of the climb and then it was up to me. From the moment I knew that only Mas, Roglič and Rodriguez were in the wheel, I just kept pushing kept pushing kept pushing. In the end we only arrived in three guys, so I’m really happy about today.”
Roglič’s performance here suggested that he had steadied the ship after leaking over a minute to Evenepoel at Pico Jano on the Thursday. The Slovenian remains resolutely in the hunt to win a fourth consecutive Vuelta. “It was good to see Primož being really strong today: it’s nice to see him like this, it’s good for the race,” insisted Evenepoel. “I’m just really proud that all of my hard work pays off, and that I can measure myself with these guys.”
Evenepoel will have a chance to do it all over again on Sunday in the second part of the Vuelta’s Asturian doubleheader. The final ascent at Les Praeres is just under four kilometres in length, but its gradient averages 12.9%, with pitches in excess of 20%. Another day, another examination, but, as ever, Evenepoel evinced no fear.
“What I saw from the past is there are not really big gaps, but of course if you explode, it’s completely done for sure on a climb like that,” Evenepoel said. “I’m just going to keep the confidence. I know it’s a climb that suits me very well in its duration. I’m going to give my all.
"The team is very strong. We’re going to try to keep the jersey again tomorrow – and why not try to go for a stage win? That would be really nice.”
