A few kilometres after the start in Elche, the reading on Remco Evenepoel’s power meter already told him it was going to be a good day, but he didn’t realise quite how good until he was ushered behind the podium at the finish in Alicante.
Evenepoel has succeeded in just about everything so far at this Vuelta a España, but he couldn’t quite manage to stifle a smile when he was informed of the time gap to Primoz Roglič (Jumbo-Visma) while he warmed down in a cooling vest after stage 10.
His Vuelta challenge, carefully calibrated by QuickStep-AlphaVinyl since last winter, had long been oriented around this 30.9km time trial on familiar, pan flat roads on the Costa Blanca. Evenepoel suspected he might win the stage and gain ground on his general classification rivals, but he hardly expected to put 48 seconds into Roglič, the man who has won the last three editions of the race.
“48? Well, that’s a big surprise,” Evenepoel said, all but performing a double take. “I saw that my teammate Remi [Cavagna, third at 1:00] did very well. It was perfect that he did such a good time trial for me, because when I was still sitting in the bus, I could everyone was slowing down in the last part compared to his time. I knew I just had to push one power all the time because it was flat with a super hard finish.”
Evenepoel averaged some 55.676kph in a display that was both an exhibition of power and a study in pacing. At the first intermediate check after 10km, he was already 21 seconds clear of Roglič, a gap that stretched out to 37 seconds by the 20km mark. He would tack on another 11 seconds on the final run along the coast to stretch his overall advantage on the Slovenian to 2:41.
Enric Mas (Movistar) is now third at 3:03, with Carlos Rodriguez (4th at 3:55) the only other rider within four minutes of his maillot rojo. Simon Yates (BikeExchange-Jayco) is nearly five minutes back, João Almeida (UAE Team Emirates) trails by nearly seven. Evenepoel can no longer pretend that a stage win or a high overall finish is the summit of his ambition. This Vuelta is now his race to lose.
“I’m in a big lead and I have a good feeling, so we’re just going to try to keep this red jersey as long as possible and try to keep a really good spot on GC: as high as possible I’m going to say,” Evenepoel said when he spoke with the Vuelta press room by video link. “I think so far, our Vuelta has been successful. There’s no stress anymore about a stage win and now we…
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