For Remco Evenepoel, positioning seemed to be just as big a consideration at the start of stage 13 of the Vuelta a España as it was in the closing kilometres.
Shortly before the peloton set out from Ronda, UAE Team Emirates announced that Juan Ayuso had tested positive for COVID-19, but his low viral load meant he could remain in the race as he was deemed not to be contagious.
The leaders of the Vuelta classifications ordinarily line up alongside one another at the head of the field, but on Friday, Evenepoel felt it would be sage to maintain a certain distance from the man currently wearing the white jersey on his behalf.
“I’m going to stay far away from him at the start,” Evenepoel said in the mixed zone. “I think it’s risky. There is a good chance that he will still give up because corona slowly builds up in the body.
“It’s not up to me to say anything about it. It’s nice for him that he feels better. But I would advise him to think carefully about it, as he could be seriously ill within a few days. That’s how it went for my teammate Pieter Serry.”
Evenepoel briefly revisited the topic after reaching the finish in Montilla safely in the main body of the peloton, noting that it was “a bit bizarre” that riders were choosing to continue in the Vuelta despite testing positive for COVID-19.
As anticipated, stage 13 concluded in a bunch sprint, with Mads Pedersen (Trek-Segafredo) emerging victorious on the uphill finale in Montilla. Evenepoel was safely tucked near the head of the peloton on the run-in before drifting back, though Primož Roglič (Jumbo-Visma) – second overall at 2:41 – briefly looked to be considering a crack at the sprint.
“I don’t know what he did. Maybe he wanted to make a gap or win the stage, I actually didn’t see what happened in front of me,” said Evenepoel. “I just wanted to enter the last kilometre in a good position, and I managed to do well. The team dropped me off with 3k to go and then I was looking for my own position. It was actually something I learned from leading out Fabio [Jakobsen] at the beginning of the season. It was quite easy to find my way in the bunch.”
Everything has seemed to come easily to Evenepoel so far on the Vuelta, though he had endured a brace of setbacks over the previous two stages. After losing QuickStep-AlphaVinyl teammate Julian Alaphilippe to a crash on Wednesday, Evenepoel was himself a faller on stage 12. He shook off that incident to lead the GC contenders home at…
Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at CyclingNews RSS Feed…