He’s done it. Remco Evenepoel (QuickStep-AlphaVinyl) is poised to be crowned winner of the Vuelta a España on Sunday and in the process will take home Belgium’s first Grand Tour victory in nearly half a century.
After a relatively trouble-free, if stressful, final mountain stage 20 through the sierras of Madrid on Saturday, Evenepoel reached the finish line at Navacerrada safely in sixth place and just behind the main challenger Enric Mas (Movistar).
After such a lengthy Grand Tour drought, to say Evenepoel's win will have a huge impact in Belgium is no exaggeration, with his bid to capture the Vuelta already generating massive, country-wide levels of support, interest and expectation.
For example on Saturday alone one Flemish newspaper lined up 44 different public figures (one for each year without a Grand Tour win) to wish Evenepoel the best. In another newspaper, three former Belgian Grand Tour winners, Lucien Van Impe, Johan De Muynck, and Freddy Maertens all expressed their support. And by Saturday evening, Evenepoel’s victory was the front page news on all the Flemish media websites and newspapers.
In a lengthy final press conference on Saturday, Evenepoel recognised that before the stage there had been a lot of tension, saying “I was actually calmer during the race than this morning.
“I started to become tired, my body was not the same, and I just wanted the race to be over. But then you know you’re still going to have to suffer,” he said.
However, by the time he got to the top of the Morcuera, the second last climb and the hardest of the day, with all the other favourites still in the same group with him, the race was effectively over, he said.
From that point, the stress levels began to shrink, and rather than watch the rest of his rivals, all he had to do, he explained, was ensure that he rode within himself “and maybe that’s why I looked more relaxed from the outside than on the inside.”
This was not to say Movistar, as the Belgian’s main rivals, did not try to test Evenepoel one last time, all but broadcasting their strategy by placing two riders, Alejandro Valverde and Gregor Muhlberger, in the early break in case their GC contender Enric Mas could go for the win and needed support. And predictably enough, on the Morcuera, after a long drive by teammate Carlos Verona, Mas made one last effort to loosen Evenepoel’s grip on the overall.
However, with the Spaniard not on a good day, his move fizzled out quickly and as Mas eased, the lengthy glance he exchanged with Evenepoel seemingly confirmed he had conceded defeat.
“I knew they were going to attack me there, because it was the hardest climb of the day and the hardest two kilometres, around 8.5% or nine,” Evenepoel recounted.
“It was quite a tough part of the climb, but when you have only big climbs like today’s and each one is 10, 15 kilometres long you know you cannot keep attacking all the time.
“They had to try because that’s cycling and you have to try to beat your opponent. But I think as Enric said in the Vuelta, Movistar also wanted to fight for their [UCI] points so that’s why they didn’t really want to attack any more than that.
“I think after the top of the penultimate climb, everybody knew the race was already over, except for the stage win.”
However, given his blistering attacks and time gains on Evenepoel in the mountain stages in Andalucia, once arch-rival Primož Roglič (Jumbo-Visma) had to quit the race last Tuesday, for some observers it seemed like the Vuelta was over long before the sierras of Madrid.
But as Bradley Wiggins wisely observed when winning his first Grand Tour, the Tour de France in 2012, you can only beat the people who are there, and ultimately speculation on how Roglič could have affected Evenepoel’s path to victory will always remain futile.
Asked if it had been easier without Roglič in the Vuelta, Evenepoel himself reasoned that “crashes are part of racing, I can talk about that as well in Lombardia 2020,” where he was badly injured, “although for sure for the race it’s a pity that he was not there anymore.
“Everybody knows Primož one of the best riders in the world, but to say that it was easier without Roglič - that’s not true.
“You always have to push, you always feel your legs. Enric Mas is also one of the best climbers in the world, he was already fifth in the Tour, twice second in the Vuelta and now third. So he, too, is one of the best Grand Tour riders.”
Yet it will be Evenepoel who stands tallest on the podium on Sunday evening on the Paseo de la Castellana boulevard in central Madrid, celebrating what he described on Saturday as “the most beautiful win of my career.” And it will also be Evenepoel, whose future as a racer, at 22, and as his country’s first Grand Tour winner in 44 years, not to mention QuickStep’s first as well, that will be most widely discussed from here on.
There is no doubt in his mind, in any case, that winning the Vuelta means Grand Tours of all types are on his radar. When one Spanish journalist asked him if this victory allowed him to target Giros, Tours, and Vueltas in the future, he answered rather tartly “Why not? Thanks for doubting.”
He would not be drawn, however, on whether this now means he is ready to battle against Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) and Jonas Vingegaard in the Tour de France. Pogačar has already said he’s looking forward to sparring with the Belgian, but Evenepoel pointedly skipped the question, saying “that’s something I really am not thinking about right now.”
Asked what his landmark win meant for his country, Evenepoel recognised that “For Belgium, this is something special.” But he also saw winning the Vuelta as indicative of a change in the country’s development of its young riders, as well as one that could spark changes in his own career, too.
“We have a lot of good time triallists, but more and more climbers are coming through because the national team is starting to develop young guys, and you can train in the Ardennes,” he argued.
“But to win a Grand Tour is something different, it’s the preparation that takes months or even a year, the longer the better. And from now on I think I have to make a big decision in what my career direction will be because this year I’ve won Classics and also a Grand Tour.
“I can combine them, but probably I really have to make a season in two parts; focussing on one-day races and then on Grand Tours.”
Perhaps hinting at how his 2023 season might play out, he said, “for example, it’s not possible to focus on Liège and the Giro. But maybe to focus on the Giro and end-of-season Classics and Worlds.”
That debate is one for the winter, and as Evenepoel put it, “it’s going to be a big task, anyway. The first thing in any case to enjoy this victory.”
