Miguel Indurain has won a lot throughout his career but surprisingly no
Vuelta a Espana. However, being his home country, he frequently visits the race and was present during yesterday's time-trial in Valladolid. There he gave his opinion on the current fight for the Vuelta win.
On
Remco Evenepoel, the five time winner of the Tour de France commented: “I see him as a very complete rider, but the competition is not fierce in this Vuelta," Indurain told VTM. "There are three of the Jumbos and then you also have men like Juan Ayuso and Enric Mas. But Evenepoel is holding up well for the time being."
Starting stage 11, in third place. Ahead of him are Sepp Kuss and Marc Soler who weren't expected at this point in the race, but benefited from a successful breakaway, and have since hung on quite well in the climbs. Evenepoel lies ahead of all of his expected main rivals, however is vastly outnumbered. Whilst so far this hasn't proved an issue, the second half of the race is much tougher and will provide different challenges for Soudal - Quick-Step.
“The time trial has given Evenepoel a nice lead over its rivals, but there is still a lot to come. I think of the stage to the Tourmalet and also the mountains in Asturias," the former pro warns. Summit finishes at the Alto de l'Angliru and La Cruz de Linares will prove deadly, whilst stage 20 is packed with over 200 kilometer of constant climbing that can prove equally as difficult. "I think his team is quite balanced, compared to many other teams. Roglic-Evenepoel, I think that will be the duel for the overall victory," he concludes.