The young Belgian is confident ahead of a hard weekend in the mountains.
Remco Evenepoel enjoyed a quiet day at the top of the Vuelta a España GC – the fifth different stage race he is leading this season, after Vuelta a la Comunitat Valenciana, Volta ao Algarve, Itzulia Basque Country and the Tour of Norway.
Featuring just one classified climb, the 22km Puerto de San Glorio, stage 7 was one for the attackers, and with this in mind five riders broke clear soon after the start and managed to hold off the chasers, despite their maximum gap not going north of three minutes. Protected by his Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl teammates, who did again a top job at the front of the bunch, Evenepoel came home some 20-odd seconds behind winner Jesus Herrada (Cofidis), retaining his place at the top of the standings.
“It was a good day for us. Nice weather, which I enjoyed, and a breakaway going clear and all the way to the line, which was the perfect scenario for our team. I enjoyed wearing my first Grand Tour leader’s jersey, it was a real pleasure to have this iconic jersey on my shoulders, and I want to say again thank you to my teammates for the job they did.”
“It’s nice to lead the ranking and I hope to keep my advantage after the weekend, but it won’t be easy, because we have two hard mountain stages. If there will be an opportunity to gain time I will go for it, but the plan is to defend the jersey and carry it into the second week. We will see how it goes”, added Remco, only the second Belgian rider this century to wear the leader’s jersey on back-to-back Vuelta a España stages.
Photo credit: ©Tim De Waele / Getty Images
