We have a time of 24:55 at the finish, which puts us into second provisional. Good ride from the boys! #LaVuelta22
Evenepoel shows good signs on opening day despite having "done very long turns"
CyclingFriday, 19 August 2022 at 23:01
Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl Team and Remco Evenepoel have had a strong opening day at the Vuelta a Espana, however the ambitions were higher in the roads of Utrecht.
“Jumbo-Visma's weight is on average ten kilos higher, so I think I can be proud of all the boys. We divided it up well and had a weak moment after the intermediate point. We lost a little too much time there compared to INEOS Grenadiers, but third at 14 seconds is very good," Evenepoel said in a post-race interview. Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl were one of the three favourite teams for the day, and they arrived third, 14 seconds back on Jumbo-Visma.
This was a gain on several rivals for Evenepoel, a day that has been saved aswell with no mishaps to open the race with. “We said last minute that if I was the strongest, then I had to keep riding full for the last half kilometre. I have done very long turns, usually of a kilometer. That was necessary to keep the speed really high," he detailed.
"We had come up with something if I had red to hand it over to a teammate tomorrow in the sprint. But we had no reason to think because we could hardly finish next to each other," Evenepoel said. The stage win was a goal for the team, it hasn't worked, and the red jersey is now also relatively far away for the Belgian. “It's not about the red, but about the stage win I wanted with the team. In the case of not winning, it was to take time on the competition. Then 14 seconds is not extremely much, other teams are in a worse position," the Belgian prodigy explained.
"Now it's focusing on stage wins, although I have to get through the next two days first. Then it is the real Vuelta that starts," he previews. "Let's say it's better that Jumbo-Visma got over it with 14 seconds. That was different to have won INEOS by a small difference".
claps 0visitors 167
Just in
Popular news
Latest comments
- Most of these have nothing to do with rider safety or are completely unachievablevappaxbipmv23-12-2024
- Depends on how fast the Cipressa would be beforehand and in what condition Philipsen would bevappaxbipmv23-12-2024
- Some things sound crazy until they aren't, what if he's actually right? 🤷vappaxbipmv23-12-2024
- Why make a comment to state the obvious? Of course MvdP is much better at CX than Pogacar, does anyone doubt that But that wasn't his pointvappaxbipmv23-12-2024
- If you look at road alone obvi Pogacar is the better rider. But maybe MVDP is the better overall rider since he can win in three plus disciplines?mobk23-12-2024
- Correction on 2021 Olympics. It was mainly the Dutch ladies who didn’t know who was leading the race. Other teams like the Germans and Italians knew that Kiesenhofer was out front.mobk23-12-2024
- A champion turning into a sore loser. Or is he on coke again?
UltimateOpportunist23-12-2024 - If you look at the major races they’ve both been in, van der Poel had the early edge as lately Pogacar has had the advantage. It’s all on procyclingstats.RidesHills23-12-2024
- I wouldn’t assume Tadej can’t win at cross. He did a cross race, not a World Cup, a few years ago and crushed the field. It was a minor race. But he can win anywhere.mij23-12-2024
- I wonder what would happen if Pogacar attacked on the Cipressa instead of the Poggio in San Remo? Would MvdPoel still be able to follow?Ride197423-12-2024