Two out of two. For the second day running in the UAE Tour Soudal-QuickStep hit the bullseye in the race, with Remco Evenepoel taking another key step in the GC battle for the overall as he moved up to second overall.
Soudal-QuickStep had said pre-stage that their goal was a top three placing in the vital high-speed team time trial around Khalifa Port, but finally they could secure a narrow triumph over EF Education-Easy Post by the bare minimum of one second.
Evenepoel has only gained three seconds over Ineos Grenadiers and his young Australian rival Luke Plapp, while Bahrain Victorious and Pello Bilbao are still very much a GC factor after only losing four seconds.
But with no other GC rivals at a minute or less, the team time trial has continued the clean-out of the overall classification begun by Monday’s spectacular echelon stage. And in the two mountain stages to come, Evenepoel remains very much on course to challenge for the overall lead.
“We came here with some big goals, to have a good TTT was one of them but to win it - we could only dream about it," Evenepoel said afterwards.
Evenepoel recognised that the TTT itself had been a race of two halves, after losing 10 seconds in the first part of the course to the fastest team EF at the mid-way checkpoint before powering things up on the equally second section.
“It was actually a difficult course to pace because we had a headwind-tailwind-headwind and then tailwind again,” Evenepoel said on another day with midday temperatures in the high 20s also challenging the riders.
“So we had to put down a high speed in the headwind sections and then on the tailwinds we went all out without thinking too much.”
“In that last part, I had to do very long pulls because I had the biggest chainring on the bike and it was up to me to bring the train up to a very high speed. At one point we were riding at 70 or 71kph. But that was the best strategy to win.”
Asked to explain where riders suffer the most physically during a team time trial, Evenpoel argued, “I’d say it hurts the most in your back. That's because the guy that swings off has to begin again. And when you have a guy in the front who really wants to bring the speed up, even when it’s steady, you [the rider that swings off] have to go from a lower speed to a higher one and that five or 10 seconds, accelerating to get back into the train, that's when it hurts the most.”
However, he pointed out that in Soudal-QuickStep's case, they had steadily improving chances of victories in the second half of the team time trial to spur them on.
“But if you hear over the radio that you’re pulling back time on the fastest team and even overcoming them by one second it’s really motivating. Guys like Tim Merlier and Bert Van Lerberghe gave their most in the last two kilometres and then went really all out til their legs exploded. A the end of the day, it's all about good pacing and keeping the speed really steady.”
When it came to Evenepoel himself, his legs felt as good as they had on Monday, he said, when he and 12 other riders broke away from the main pack to gain vital time in the general classification.
“It’s more about keeping up the speed," he added. "Because when you go to 70kph you have problems turning the pedals at such a high cadence and you need to push and that’s not easy. With a tailwind going up to 60kph is easy, but going to 70kph is really hard. That constant increase of power was the hardest.”
Evenepoel was not willing to exclude either Bilbao, third in UAE last year, or Plapp from the overall battle, pointing out that Plapp “has a very strong team, maybe not for the climbs but for the general race, for sure.”
“They are close, but I believe in my team and I believe in myself," he insisted."And after today we will gain a lot of confidence and it’s a big morale boost as well for tomorrow and the other days.”
As for Tuesday’s long but very steady 21km final climb of Jebel Jais, Evenepoel said of the stage 3 summit finish, “If I remember well from the past, it’s not the hardest and sitting on the wheels is the most important part. So it’s going to be all about saving energy and trying to have a good final punch for the victory.”
“We now have two stage wins, so it’s not a ‘must’ to go for a third, but for sure three out of three will be nice.”
“But there will be some other very strong riders, Plapp and Bilbao were very strong in the echelons. So I think for now we’re just going to enjoy our victories and a really good start to the UAE Tour.”
