The Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana have insisted Remco Evenepoel’s comments about the poor conditions of their crucial off-road summit finish on Friday are no longer valid after improvements were made to the ascent on Tuesday.
The 5.5-kilometre sterrato climb of Alto Antenas del Maigmó Tibi on Friday is the race’s only summit finish and with two flat stages afterwards, it is very likely to decide the overall classification.
On Tuesday afternoon, QuickStep-AlphaVinyl's Evenepoel caused something of a stir when he insisted that the climb was in a very poor state with rocks in the road rendering it all but impracticable.
But the race organisation insisted on Wednesday that in fact Evenepoel’s comments were out of date, as on Tuesday morning roadworks vehicles and road sweepers had been sent up to ensure the packed-earth climb was both slightly broadened and in perfect condition.
“He must have gone up it before it was sorted out,” Valenciana technical director Paco Benitez told Cyclingnews.
Evenepoel is understood to have gone up the climb in January during the QuickStep-AlphaVinyl training camp in nearby Calpe and was so shocked by what he saw he thought the GPS was wrong.
But the GPS was right, it's only that the organisers had yet to spruce the climb up.
“OK, it’s no motorway, but what he’s said about loose stones being there …” Benitez continued before waving his hands to indicate the larger stones, which he admitted were numerous, had all been cleared away.
“If he went up in January, he’ll have seen all those stones and thought 'hm, this is going to be crazy'.
“We’ve widened it a little bit and they’ve raked away any other loose material. We even thought of sending up a water truck to spray it and pack the earth down tighter, but with just the rakes it’s fine.
“In any case, the organisation will be going up in person to double check it tomorrow (Thursday) evening to make sure nothing else needs doing.”
Should there be rainy weather, Benitez said, “we have a plan B to get up to the top on an alternative route with just tarmac.”
A previously unprecedented climb in Valenciana, Benitez said the 5.5-kilometre ascent which has 1.7 kilometres of sterrato, finishes a kilometre from the top.
“The average gradient is 9 or 10 per cent and there are some short segments with gradients of up to 15 per cent. The sterrato section is all about 9 per cent, although there’s a chunk at 11 per cent.”
“But it’s all in a wood, not on the side of a cliff, so there’s no danger there. For TV viewers it should be spectacular.”
