Remco Evenepoel to win for the first time at Tour de France today? "I want to try to sprint, especially if it is for a stage win"

Remco Evenepoel sprinted to eighth place on the first stage of the Tour de France. The former Belgian road race champion has raced in his standard Soudal - Quick-Step jersey for the first time in a while this Saturday, and today on stage 2 he could hunt the stage win.

“The San Luca, but certainly also the climb before that, are real judges. I think there will definitely be a team that will ride those climbs to the max," Evenepoel said in an interview with Het Nieuwsblad. "It will be a long final today”, expects the number eight in the classification. It is mainly guesswork who will do what today. So we have to be awake”.

It will be another hot day on the road but this one significantly less climbing-heavy. The ascents on the day will be much shorter and explosive but also in the finale they will come closer to the finish and are significantly steeper. In fact the ascent to San Luca will be 2 kilometers at over 10% with ramps that go quite above that. Evenepoel is aware that the GC race may explode on this day, and he was right about the GC fight not exploding yesterday.

“If we go to the finish with a smaller group, I definitely have to be there," he says, in which he himself is a favourite for the stage win. "I want to try to sprint, especially if it is for a stage win. Nothing has to be done, everything is allowed. Simply being ready and focused for the final, that is the most important thing.”

"'I expect the race to be more open tomorrow, more battle on the climb and also bigger differences," Tadej Pogacar said, whilst Jonas Vingegaard stated that "it’s going to be more explosive, with short and steep climbs. It’s certain, it will be really different from today."