Romain Bardet: I knew Remco Evenepoel wanted to win this Vuelta stage like Eddy Merckx

Romain Bardet and Remco Evenepoel in the breakaway on stage 14 at the Vuelta a Espana
Romain Bardet and Remco Evenepoel in the breakaway on stage 14 at the Vuelta a Espana (Image credit: Getty Images)

Sitting exhausted on a pile of team kit bags next to a barrier a few hundred metres after the finish of stage 14 of the Vuelta a España, Romain Bardet (Team dsm-firmenich) took more than a few minutes to regain his composure after a mammoth breakaway with Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-QuickStep).

Dropped by Evenepoel with a steady but not sharp acceleration some four kilometres from the finish line at Bonaigua-Larra, Bardet had no chance of regaining contact, hellbent as Evenepoel was on bouncing back as high as possible from his GC debacle on Saturday.

Alasdair Fotheringham

Alasdair Fotheringham has been reporting on cycling since 1991. He has covered every Tour de France since 1992 bar one, as well as numerous other bike races of all shapes and sizes, ranging from the Olympic Games in 2008 to the now sadly defunct Subida a Urkiola hill climb in Spain. As well as working for Cyclingnews, he has also written for The IndependentThe GuardianProCycling, The Express and Reuters.