Remco Evenepoel is producing a most remarkable Tour de France debut, even if his light has inevitably been obscured by the fourth instalment of the unquenchable duel between Tadej Pogačar and Jonas Vingegaard.
Despite winning the Vuelta a España two years ago, one of a dozen stage race victories in his career to date, Evenepoel began this Tour de France accompanied by familiar noise flickering in the background, namely the quiet hum of those curiously persistent doubts over whether he was really a Grand Tour rider at all.
They will surely have been silenced altogether by the time Evenepoel reaches Nice, regardless of his final deficit to the seemingly unassailable Pogacar. Evenepoel remains firmly on course for a podium finish in the Tour de France GC standings on Sunday evening, and his aggression in the finale at Superdévoluy on stage 17 indicated that he might yet aim at divesting Vingegaard of second place.
After being the man closest to matching Pogačar's fierce acceleration on the Col du Noyer, Evenepoel later clipped away from the yellow jersey and Vingegaard on the final climb to Superdévoluy, snatching ten seconds from them in the process.
"I felt Vingegaard was a bit on the limit," Evenepoel said of those dizzying moments atop Noyer. 'When Tadej attacked, I was the only one more or less close. I'm not going to say I slowed because I rode away from Jonas after that. But I couldn't get back on the wheel, I had just reacted too late."
In keeping with the frenetic rhythm of a Tour seemingly destined to be run off at a record average speed – the dial currently stands at 42.736kph – the day didn't produce the anticipated transition stage, even if Olympic champion Richard Carapaz (EF Education-EasyPost) eventually won from a sizeable breakaway.
Inevitably, the GC race still caught fire behind Carapaz, with Pogacar striking the match on the upper reaches of the Col du Noyer, seemingly for the sheer hell of it. "He did this purely to annoy Vingegaard," was Tom Dumoulin's assessment on NOS.
Whatever its motivation, Evenepoel responded to the call. The Belgian was unable to match Pogačar's acceleration but, for the first time on a climb, he was superior to Vingegaard, cresting the summit a handful of seconds ahead of the Dane. When the top three overall regrouped after a full-blooded descent, Evenepoel opted to sow a little chaos of his own by attacking early in the 4km final climb to Superdévoluy.
"I still felt good, and I still had a teammate in front," said Evenepoel, whose Soudal-QuickStep comrade Jan Hirt dropped back from the break to help.
"They shouted to me in the earpiece, 'If it slows down at the foot of the final climb, then go straight away.' That's what I did. And Jan dropped me off in the last kilometre, as I had asked."
Evenepoel reached the finish ten seconds ahead of Pogacar and twelve up on Vingegaard, leaving him third overall, now 5:09 off yellow. Perhaps more pertinently, Evenepoel has tightened his hold on a podium spot after gaining another two minutes on fourth-placed Jõao Almeida, who now trails him by almost eight minutes in the overall standings.
"In the end, it's 10 seconds or so [on Pogacar and Vingegaard], and that's all good," Evenepoel said. "But the fact that the gap to the guys behind me on GC was 2:30 is even better."
Although Evenepoel was soundly distanced by both Pogačar and Vingegaard at Plateau de Beille on Sunday evening, he seemed to take heart from his own performance. Despite losing 2:51 on the ascent, he was still quicker than the late Marco Pantani's previous record, set on the notorious 1998 Tour. He certainly appeared emboldened about his climbing here, even if he confessed that he was not yet willing to attack with complete abandon.
"Maybe I should have jumped a bit more aggressively, but it's all new to me. I didn't dare to go all-in on a 4km uphill finish," said Evenepoel, who was coy about the likelihood of further attacks on Vingegaard on Friday and Saturday, when the race tackles summit finishes at Isola 2000 and the Col de la Couillole. "It will depend on how far the finish is."
On Wednesday's evidence, Pogačar seems willing to offer Evenepoel a degree of leeway – "I think Tadej could have reacted to me, but he left Visma-Lease a Bike do the work" – but it remains to be seen if that strategy will remain in place in the Maritime Alps.
"That could be to my advantage, but we will mainly stick to our basic plan, which is a place on the podium and the white jersey," Evenepoel said. "Maybe there is also a stage win, although everything I can show and experience here is a bonus."
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