The Belgian is ready to give his best in order to defend the jersey in the weekend’s tough mountain stages.
Another day, another performance for Remco Evenepoel at the Spanish Grand Tour; by retaining La Roja Friday afternoon, he became, at the age of 22 years and 220 days, the youngest rider since the inaugural edition in 1935 to lead the general classification for eight consecutive days. It happened at the end of another hot stage, which took the bunch from the picturesque city of Ronda to Montilla, in the province of Cordoba, over 168.4 rolling kilometers.
The high temperatures were the main difficulty of the day, which came down to an uphill bunch sprint after being animated for almost four hours by a three-man breakaway. The entire Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl team stayed around Evenepoel at all times, keeping him out of the wind and well-positioned, before escorting the Belgian safely home through the final hectic kilometers.
“It’s been a hot day and nervous at times in the peloton, but overall, a good stage for us, and I am proud to continue wearing this jersey, one of the most beautiful in cycling. Now I will try to recover as best as possible and be ready for the hard weekend that we have ahead. The heat and the fatigue could play a role, but our goal remains keeping the red jersey and my advantage in the general classification. I think there will be attacks, and the plan is to do my best to defend the jersey in the hard mountains of Saturday and Sunday”, Remco explained after the stage.
Photo credit: ©Tim De Waele / Getty Images
