Despite overwhelmingly strong start to Vuelta, "the goals are still the same" for Remco Evenepoel

Little could be said of Remco Evenepoel's first week at the Vuelta a Espana of negative, as the Belgian has taken the race by the horns on all three summit finishes and has delivered enormous amounts of damage to the rest of the field. He'll enter a new race from tomorrow onwards however, and many obstacles will lie in his path.

“The goals are still the same. They are not changing. This is still my first grand tour," Evenepoel said in a press conference on the rest day. "Last year I started the Giro but you can’t compare the rider that I was back then with the one I am now. I still don’t have my stage win, to be clear. It’s special to wear the red jersey but I’m really dreaming of a grand tour stage win". 

Although it was evident that the Belgian would be the team leader and testing himself for the GC at the Vuelta, both he and Patrick Lefevere issued counter-intuitive statements in the days leading up to the race. Evenepoel confirmed that his main goal is a stage win, however the way the race has played out so far, he's close to being the man to beat at the race.

“The team is strong, the team is confident. It’s a new thing for us and like an expedition. We just gave it our all but the first week was super hard racing," Evenepoel said. "The last week was super brutal but the team did well, and so did I. we were ready and focused and we’ll try to keep that mentality and team spirit. Everything we did for the first week we’ll try and repeat for the second and third week.” Evenepoel is the unanimous favourite to win the time-trial on stage 10, which is a day he is looking forward to quite a lot, and could deliver another blow in the fight for the red jersey.

The true challenge will come further down the road however. The second week will feature the very long ascents of the Peñas Blancas and Sierra Nevada ascents, altitude will be a major factor on stage 15, and the recovery capabilities of riders will be put to the test. This will be even more crucial in the third week where there will be three mountainous stages.

“I can’t say anything about the third week. It’s just day by day. Now it’s the time trial, then sprint stage, mountain stage but the fatigue builds up each day and I hope to recover as much as possible on the easier days and then be ready for the hard weekend," Evenepoel hopes. "Then it’s the same story for the final week. The third week is still far away. I ask for turns. I asked for turns from Enric but I have advice from within the team to just stay calm if they don’t want to work and to just do my own thing.”