He’s done it. Remco Evenepoel (QuickStep-AlphaVinyl) is poised to be crowned winner of the Vuelta a España on Sunday and in the process will take home Belgium’s first Grand Tour victory in nearly half a century.
After a relatively trouble-free, if stressful, final mountain stage 20 through the sierras of Madrid on Saturday, Evenepoel reached the finish line at Navacerrada safely in sixth place and just behind the main challenger Enric Mas (Movistar).
After such a lengthy Grand Tour drought, to say Evenepoel’s win will have a huge impact in Belgium is no exaggeration, with his bid to capture the Vuelta already generating massive, country-wide levels of support, interest and expectation.
For example on Saturday alone one Flemish newspaper lined up 44 different public figures (one for each year without a Grand Tour win) to wish Evenepoel the best. In another newspaper, three former Belgian Grand Tour winners, Lucien Van Impe, Johan De Muynck, and Freddy Maertens all expressed their support. And by Saturday evening, Evenepoel’s victory was the front page news on all the Flemish media websites and newspapers.
In a lengthy final press conference on Saturday, Evenepoel recognised that before the stage there had been a lot of tension, saying “I was actually calmer during the race than this morning.
“I started to become tired, my body was not the same, and I just wanted the race to be over. But then you know you’re still going to have to suffer,” he said.
However, by the time he got to the top of the Morcuera, the second last climb and the hardest of the day, with all the other favourites still in the same group with him, the race was effectively over, he said.
From that point, the stress levels began to shrink, and rather than watch the rest of his rivals, all he had to do, he explained, was ensure that he rode within himself “and maybe that’s why I looked more relaxed from the outside than on the inside.”
This was not to say Movistar, as the Belgian’s main rivals, did not try to test Evenepoel one last time, all but broadcasting their strategy by placing two riders, Alejandro Valverde and Gregor Muhlberger, in the early break in case their GC contender Enric Mas could go for the win and needed support. And predictably enough, on the Morcuera, after a long drive by teammate Carlos Verona, Mas made one last effort to loosen Evenepoel’s grip on the overall.
However, with the Spaniard not on a good day, his move fizzled out quickly and as…
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