It could have been a whole lot worse. A little over three kilometres from the top of La Pandera, after Remco Evenepoel’s previously smooth spinning had given way to deliberate, strained pedal strokes, it looked as though the Vuelta a España was slipping from his grasp.
Primož Roglič’s probing effort on the stiffest slopes of the climb had now morphed into a full-scale attack on Evenepoel’s red jersey. On stage 14, for the first time since the race left Utrecht, the Belgian’s seemingly irresistible momentum had stalled.
As Roglič’s advantage edged out beyond 40 seconds, Evenepoel found himself floundering to match the pace of men he had distanced seemingly at will every time the mood had taken him over the previous two weeks. For a few hundred metres, he seemed to be teetering on the brink.
“It wasn’t my best day, for sure. I didn’t have the best legs, and I couldn’t accelerate when Roglič went,” said Evenepoel, who ultimately limited his losses on Roglič to 51 seconds to retain the red jersey. “I’m still 1:50 ahead in GC, so it’s nothing to really panic about. I’ll try to recover as much as possible and survive tomorrow.”
For all Evenepoel’s sangfroid after the finish, there were surely moments of panic when Roglič disappeared out of view. Still, his resolve never wilted, not even when he was caught by Juan Ayuso (UAE Team Emirates), riding unhappily on an unfamiliar neutral service bike. As the climb drew on, the gradient eased slightly, and that surely helped too.
“I was just focused on my effort,” Evenepoel said. “I think on a hard climb like this, it’s just man against man. Today we lost a small battle, but we didn’t lose the big battle.”
Even before Evenepoel reached the flamme rouge, it was already clear that he would save the red jersey, and he limited his losses further on the short, sweeping descent in the final kilometre. He crossed the line 8th on the stage, 56 seconds down on winner Richard Carapaz (Ineos) and 48 down on Roglic, who also picked up a three-second bonus.
In the overall standings, Evenepoel’s lead on Roglič shrinks to 1:49, while Mas now moves to within 2:43. Those gaps are still imposing, but the air of invulnerability has dissipated.
“I think I already made the others lose the same amount of time that I lost today,” Evenepoel said. “I think that’s the normal story of a Grand Tour: you gain some time on some guys, you lose some time on some guys. That’s why it’s three-week racing and not one-week racing.”
Evenepoel had appeared to be pedalling with his usual fluidity on both the Puerto de los Villares and the lower slopes of La Pandera, seemingly untroubled by the pace being laid down by Robert Gesink and Chris Harper of Jumbo-Visma. When Harper swung over, Evenepoel set his QuickStep-AlphaVinyl teammate Ilan Van Wilder to ride on the front, but he was suddenly placed on the back foot by Roglič’s crisp acceleration inside the last 4km.
Evenepoel is riding with a strapping on his upper right leg after his crash on stage 12, but he declined to cite the effects of that crash as the explanation for his travails here. Instead, he suggested that the early speed on the stage had left him “lacking some freshness” come the finale.
“I have some sore muscles, but it should be gone by tomorrow or after the rest day,” he said. “For sure it’s the second day after the crash and that’s often the day you don’t feel really good. But I’m not going use that as an excuse. I just didn’t have my best legs today. I hope this was my bad day for these three weeks.”
Sierra Nevada
Evenepoel’s struggles in the province of Jaén will have left his rivals – Roglič, above all – warming to the idea that they can strike at an exposed heel between here and Madrid. In his post-stage press conference, Evenepoel evinced satisfaction at how he had managed his resources in the finale. Off days of varying degrees had, after all, sunk his challenges at the Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana, Tirreno-Adriatico and the Tour de Suisse earlier this season. Here, he navigated the rough waters and reached the shore.
“Let’s say it was not my best day, but in the end, we could control the damage very well, so nothing to worry about. On to tomorrow,” said Evenepoel. “I gained a lot of time on everybody already. Today it was my turn to lose time. In three weeks, the shape cannot always stay good. You have good days, and you have less good days. I think today it was my turn to have a bad day. That’s the life of a Grand Tour.”
The summit finish at La Pandera, of course, was the just the first instalment of an arduous weekend doubleheader. Evenepoel will surely be braced for a further offensive from Jumbo-Visma on Sunday’s haul to Sierra Nevada. The climb brings the Vuelta to its highest point, 2,501 metres above sea level. At that altitude, cracks can quickly widen into crevasses.
“It’s stage I know every well, and I think I can plan my effort a bit more tomorrow. Nothing to worry about,” Evenepoel insisted. “It’s a completely different finish tomorrow, it’s steep in the beginning but it flattens out at the finish line. It’s a completely different stage. We still have a 1:50 lead. It’s still all about defending.”
The task is the same, but the context suddenly feels very different.
