"Nothing to panic about" following time loss at Sierra de la Pandera for Remco Evenepoel

Remco Evenepoel had cast a cloud of dominance over the first half of the Vuelta a Espana's summit finishes, but the mountaintop finish on the 14th day at Sierra de la Pandera saw the Belgian shed time in what was a moment of weakness.

"It was not my best day. I didn't have the best legs and I couldn't accelerate with Roglic. I still have a good lead, so there is nothing to panic about," he said after the finish, shrugging off the 48 seconds he lost on the Slovenian - interestingly, the exact amount of time he won on the individual time-trial that started the second week off. Hence the two are on a strong balance, heading into the queen stage which will take the riders up the brutal Alto de Hazallanas en route to the finish line at high altitude in Sierra Nevada.

Evenepoel looked solid in the GC group until Primoz Roglic and Enric Mas accelerated at the start of the steep section of the final ascent, and for some minutes seemed to be in deep difficulty, losing contact with everyone in the group. The leader of Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl Team recomposed himself however, and rode at his own pace to the finish, limiting his losses in the final two kilometers where he successfully stabilized the gap. It was a day of loss for Evenepoel, however one he will hope to have been his bad day.

"Now is the time to recover and survive tomorrow. I still had some stiff muscles," he said. Some fans noticed that he had his hip bandaged underneath his shorts, showing some sort of effect from the crash of two days ago. "It's normal to feel it in the days after a fall, but I'm not going to use it as an excuse. I just didn't have the best legs. Hopefully this was my bad day,"