Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe’s Remco Evenepoel soloed to victory in the Trofeo Serra Tramuntana, attacking alone with over 40km to go and holding off the bunch to take back-to-back wins in the Challenge Mallorca after Red Bull’s team time trial victory on Thursday.
The Belgian time trial specialist soloed into the finish in Santuari de Lluc more than a minute and a half ahead of the chasing peloton, having attacked on the Coll de Sóller and overtaking the day’s early break to go it alone.
Despite some last-minute attacks on the final Coll de sa Batalla climb, it was a battle for second rather than the win. António Morgado (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) took second from a small chasing group, whilst Christian Scaroni (XDS Astana) rounded out the podium in third.
How it unfolded
Rolling out of Selva for a course that took in four category-2 climbs, there was quite a battle to be in the lead during the first part of the day, with several groups and splits emerging during the first 50km. Things settled as the race tackled the Coll de Femenia, and a group of seven riders established themselves in the lead: Pablo Castrillo (Movistar), Magnus Cort, Martin Tjotta (Uno-X Mobility), Adria Pericas (UAE Team Emirates-XRG), Diego Uriarte (Equipo Kern Pharma), Alex Tolio (Bardiani CSF 7 Saber) and Ole Theiler (REMBE rad-net).
This group led over the first climb, but were only around 20 seconds ahead of the regrouped peloton. On the next climb, the Coll de Puig Major, Theiler dropped out of the lead, and the six remaining riders were able to build and consolidate their lead, pulling that gap out to over a minute, though the peloton kept them on a tight leash. They started the Coll de Sóller with only 40 seconds’ advantage.
On the Coll de Sóller, Evenepoel launched an attack from the peloton to bridge across to the leaders, joining them and setting a pace that only Castrillo and Pericas could follow, making it three in the lead. Despite having more than 50km to go, Evenepoel was pushing the pace, clearly thinking of a long solo raid, though the chasers from the peloton were only 20 seconds down the road.
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