Mikel Landa has "little doubt" that Remco Evenepoel can still contest second place at Tour de France against Jonas Vingegaard
Cycling
Mikel Landa is the best Spaniard in the Tour de France classification. He is fifth, with Joao Almeida only a few seconds ahead of him and Carlos Rodriguez close behind. So far he has always stayed alongside Remco Evenepoel in the mountain stages until the attacks of Tadej Pogacar and Jonas Vingegaard and he weighs in on his Belgian teammate, with confidence that a second place in the overall classification is still possible.
The Belgian's good level has meant that he has not had to work for him on any of the climbs (nor has Soudal Quick-Step, due to the circumstances, needed the Spaniard to work for him at the head of the race). This has given Landa the freedom to do his own race and has virtually had a perfect Tour that, despite great competition, has him in the fight for a top result.
So, all things being equal, he is aiming to finish fourth overall: there are three mountain stages ahead and a time trial in which a lot can happen. He is optimistic and does not rule out that Remco could try to take over Vingegaard's second place in the general classification, as he told the Spanish radio stations at the finish line:
"There's a lot of Tour left, I'm fine, I'm looking forward to it, let's see if we have a good week. The only thing we are doing is chasing, we don't have time for much more, let's hope to be close to Jonas to see if he (Evenepoel, ed.) can get closer. Sunday's demonstration leaves little doubt, but there are still days left and Visma is going to make a tough race".
Stage 17 will be an important day for the climbers likely as the finale into Super-Devoluy presents quite a lot of difficulty, but it will be the final three days of racing that big differences can still be made.
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- Two riders unlike any others over the past few decades, during this era of carb fueling, seems relevant to me.RidesHills23-03-2025
- Funny that they shorten women’s races but have no qualms about letting U23 do the same distances.Jumpyjohn23-03-2025
- Why is that relevant when discussing speed?Mistermaumau23-03-2025
- But he wasn’t the only one ;-)Mistermaumau23-03-2025
- Obviously the questions are more important to some here than to them or the team so I suggest looking for answers instead of asking questions between ourselves. We’ll probably get them unless someone actually goes to ask the protagonists themselves. Here are some starters : They like riding together; they have their own rivalry that helps bring out the best in both; they might get more points helping each other compared to racing separate races. In any case, unless we hear MJ complaining about it, I don’t think it’s going to change, it’s the Sepp Kuss syndrome all over again, fans lobbying against the will of the rider.Mistermaumau23-03-2025
- Mine goes to MVDP for entertaining us all year round :-) Stellar race, Ganna impressive in his own way as many predicted after some oddly lacklustre times.Mistermaumau23-03-2025
- i remember when not too long ago mathieu was regarded as a real tactical knucklehead. i’m not sure that was ever quite accurate, but it’s certainly the case that over the years he has become a real master tactician. in the biggest races, van der poel rarely makes choices that don’t fully optimize every specific advantage he has.OCexile23-03-2025
- Whatever the result, I believe the strategy by UAE to launch Pogacar was absolutely the right one. Unfortunately, they just were not able to execute it the way they must have planned, being all over the place at the start of the Cipressa.Cooldude23-03-2025
- They are without doubt not just the best two classics riders of this generation, but amongst the best of all time. MvdP is more suited to MSR and PR (which Pog has yet to race), while Pog is now almost untouchable at LBL and Lombardia. RVV is the only one where both basically have an equal chance to win.Cooldude23-03-2025
- bravissima!
maria2024202423-03-2025