"I focused on my sprint and turned out it was a good tactic" - How Remco Evenepoel conquered The Tumble

Remco Evenepoel is racing the Tour of Britain, looking to prime his form ahead of the World Championships, but the Soudal - Quick-Step rider is already in strong form and has won the queen stage of the British race. Atop 'The Tumble', one of Wales' most popular climbs, the Olympic Champion raised his arms in glory once again.

Up the first climb in its first occasion, Evenepoel already tested his rivals, even if it was unfeasable to get away already at that time. "I think first time up the climb we wanted to see how it went, we went quite fast, but the last 3 K the wind was blowing hard in the face and I quickly realized we had to wait for the sprint, it was going to be hard to get away".

On the final climb Evenepoel hesitated, having strong legs but not going with the attack of Pavel Sivakov, followed by two other strong climbers. Ilan van Wilder helped close the gap and a sprint finish was unavoidable between around a dozen riders.

"We could see when Sivakov and Onley and the other guy of Bahrain (Afonso Eulálio, ed.) went off. They kind of blew back, Ilan [van Wilder] also did a great job to bring the guys back and it was up to me to have a sprint. I know that after a hard day and climb I have a good sprint. I just focused on my sprint, tried it and yeah went out with a win so it's good".

In the final sprint, the Belgian showed what he does well, taking the stage win and coming within 2 seconds of Romain Grégoire's race lead. "It was a very beautiful climb, I think the first part in the forest was really hard, really steep. Once we went over cattle grid, it was a bit more flat - not flat, but 7 to 8%... I think the first 8 minutes of the climb we rode really hard, really hard pace, then it was more cat-and-mouse games. Jumping, waiting, attacking, see how everything goes, and with a strong headwind we needed to be smart. I focused on my sprint and turned out it was a good tactic". 

"Try to go for the green jersey - green jersey is leader jersey here at the Tour of Britain, it's going to be a specific day, lot of rain predicted so it's going to be tricky. I'm not going to risk my life because there are important races to come, but I would really love to go with a GC win, it would be a good confidence boost after a long period outside of competition. Already this one is doing me well, feels great to win, and we're just going to give it a last good shot tomorrow and see how it finishes".

Everything is going smooth, everyday I'm recovering well, numbers are good feeling is good, I'm doing quite some work as well... First days for Luke Lamperti to keep him in front for the sprint, then some days I trained a little bit extra so everything is going well I'm happy with that".