Remco Evenepoel expecting more ahead of Tour de Romandie stage 3: "I just have to be up there and try to go for it"

Remco Evenepoel enters Stage 3 of the Tour de Romandie sitting sixth overall, 52 seconds behind race leader Alex Baudin. The Belgian remains one of the favourites for the overall title, and although he has his sights set on the weekend’s tougher stages, he’s not ruling out making gains today.

Speaking to Cycling Pro Net ahead of stage 3, Evenepoel said his Soudal – Quick-Step team executed their plan well, "We just wanted to make it as hard as possible and reduce the bunch and I think we managed well to do that."

Evenepoel also explained how his teammate’s presence in the breakaway allowed him to conserve energy yesterday. "I had a junior in the front so that was pretty good. I could stay in the back and just block the chase a little bit... I think I saved quite a lot of energy with doing that. In general we had quite a good race."

Looking ahead to today’s stage, Evenepoel acknowledged that the uphill finish could provide an opportunity to take back some valuable time, "It's true that the finish is not that easy. I think it's harder than the finish of two days ago. I just have to be up there and try to go for it and then maybe try to take some bonification seconds back."

While the weekend mountain stages remain his main objective, the world time trial champion isn’t taking anything for granted, "Tomorrow and the day after will be more important, but of course if there's an opportunity to win or to take seconds back I will not let them just lay there on the ground."

"We just have to recover a bit from yesterday and then give it a go in the final."

Remember, Evenepoel is still coming off the injury that disrupted his entire winter. His form so far has been up and down, perhaps today he can show his imperious best.