"If tomorrow is also quiet, I will hopefully be ready for Friday and Saturday" - Remco Evenepoel preparing for big weekend at the Vuelta a Espana

Remco Evenepoel made one late testing push in an attempt to create a time gap on stage 11 at the Vuelta a Espana which came to nothing and other than that, it was a relatively calm day for the GC leaders.

“That was clear. It was a quiet day," the Soudal - Quick-Step leader and reigning Vuelta a Espana champion admitted in a post-stage interview with Sporza. “There was an early breakaway with Geraint Thomas as the shortest, at about 14 minutes, so that was nothing dangerous."

The breakaway did indeed take the stage through Jesus Herrada with Evenepoel crossing the finish line nearly six minutes down alongside the rest of the Red Jersey contenders. “Everything was stuck in the last kilometre, but we got through the day well. It's better for me to do that last sprint myself than to be surprised and fall behind," he says. "It wasn't really full sprinting, I mainly wanted to keep the speed high.”

“I have to say that the first hour was quite painful. The roads there were wide and slightly ascending. That wasn't very pleasant, but I got through it to the end," Evenepoel concludes. "If tomorrow is also quiet, I will hopefully be ready for Friday and Saturday."