Remco Evenepoel’s bid to claim a repeat victory in the Vuelta a España appears to be over after the Belgian was dropped 87.3km from the end of stage 15, a mountainous run to the Col du Tourmalet.
Evenepoel was dropped from the Jumbo-Visma-led peloton along with UAE Team Emirates co-leader João Almeida on the day’s second climb, the category 1 Col de Aubisque.
The pair settled back into a chase group towards the top of the climb, with much of Evenepoel’s Soudal-QuickStep squad dropping back to make the pace.
However, at 1.5km from the top, Evenepoel – third place overall at the start of the day – dropped from the chase group as his teammates stuck with him. At the top of the climb, he lay at 1:45 from the head of the race and 1:10 down on the red jersey group.
Almeida, meanwhile, was still in the chase group which crossed the top at around 30 seconds behind race leader Sepp Kuss and his co-leaders Primož Roglič and Jonas Vingegaard, as well as the rest of the main GC favourites.
Stage 13 will go on to tackle two more major climbs – the first-category Col de Spandelles, and the hors categorie Col du Tourmalet.
There had been rumours of illness going around the Soudal-Quickstep team for a week after Andrea Bagioli dropped out on stage 6.
If Evenepoel is sick, it would be the second consecutive Grand Tour that the GC ambitions of the 23-year-old would be scuttled. He was leading the Giro d’Italia in May and won the stage 9 time trial before testing positive for COVID-19 on the first rest day and dropping out.
More to come.
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