Soudal Quick-Step’s 23-year-old Belgian was one of the main protagonists on stage three.
Remco Evenepoel kept his second place on the general classification of the eight-day race following the first of the week’s two summit finishes. Villars-sur-Olon, a 9.7km climb averaging 7.6% saw the World Champion put in a brave attack, more than six kilometers from the top, after Mattia Cattaneo and James Knox – both who had done an excellent job driving the peloton – peeled off the front.
Joined by two other riders, Remco pulled hard to help this newly-formed group stay away, but when the others surged clear in the final two kilometers he couldn’t follow and was soon caught by the chasers. Despite the big effort he had put in up until that point, Evenepoel still had enough left to finish a strong fourth and remain in contention at the Tour de Suisse, where just 17 seconds separate him from the yellow jersey.
“The team did a great job today. Then I attacked and we got a good gap, but had a bad moment at one point and lost contact with the others. Despite this, I kept fighting and doing my best. I feel I’m not in top shape yet and I still need to make some progress after all this time without racing, but I hope to feel better and better in the coming days”, explained the rainbow jersey after finishing Tuesday’s stage.
Photo credit: ©Dario Belingheri / Getty Images
