"We’ll do our best to carry red to Madrid" following win at Piornal, Remco Evenpoel assures

Stage 18 of the Vuelta a Espana was a day with several traps, however Remco Evenepoel has soared through the mountains to not only resist the many attacks of Enric Mas, but to emerge as the stage winner at the Alto del Piornal.

“I am very happy with this victory, it’s another great achievement in my life to win a mountain stage in a Grand Tour. It’s an important success for my confidence and for the morale of the team, but also because it showed that I have good legs going into the last days of the race," Evenepoel said in a post-race interview. The leader of the Vuelta has remained calm as João Almeida and Miguel Ángel López attacked the race before the final climb, but within it he had no other option than to go all-out on several occasions.

"It was a hard stage, with lots of attacks that came early, but we remained calm. If there’s one thing I have learned these past couple of weeks it’s to remain calm," he added. He responded to several attacks from Enric Mas, and also launched a few of his own, strategically bridging across to some of the other riders in the Top10. Most riders were equally balanced however, and the GC group entered the final compact featuring most names.

There, Evenepoel had to respond to a long acceleration from Mas that put the Belgian under pressure. He managed to hold the wheel however, and outsprinted him and Robert Gesink to the line to take his second stage win of the race.

“The Vuelta finishes only in Madrid, so I’m not thinking of the overall win at the moment. What I can say is that we will keep fighting and we’ll try to keep the jersey. We’ve had a successful race so far and we’ll do our best to carry red to Madrid," he concluded.

Evenepoel now leads the race with 2:07 minutes over Enric Mas and over five minutes to Juan Ayuso who sits in third position.