Mikel Landa has "little doubt" that Remco Evenepoel can still contest second place at Tour de France against Jonas Vingegaard
CyclingTuesday, 16 July 2024 at 22:00
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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5 Comments
not saying he can, or it will make a difference, but why not ride wheels until these last few days? ride your own race, pace yourself, stay close, and then if Jonas shows weakness in the last few hard days - pounce. plus the final TT plays to his strength.
I'd rather sit in 3rd and do less defending until the time is really needed to make a difference, especially with the last few hard days.
But to contest 2nd place like Landa says against Jonas he will need to attack at some point
absolutely he does. so why attack in week 2 when you can attack late into week 3, have much less time to defend your position, and finish in as stage of strength - the ITT.
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