Le Tour: Brilliant ride of Evenepoel in the Alps

Le Tour: Brilliant ride of Evenepoel in the Alps

Remco Evenepoel produced a tremendous display on the first mountain stage of the race, which took the peloton from Pinerolo – the site of a legendary Fausto Coppi victory at the 1949 Giro d’Italia – to Valloire, on French soil. Sestrières, Col du Montgenèvre and the Galibier made for an important and early test that ended up shaking up the general classification.

Soudal Quick-Step showed an impressive collective strength on the ascents, keeping a number of riders around Remco Evenepoel, who was enjoying his second day in the white jersey. When the pace changed at the front on the slopes of the Galibier, the peloton was whittled down to around 15 men, including Remco and Mikel Landa, who continued to ride flawlessly and match the sustained pace despite the high altitude and strong headwind.

The first attack came one kilometer from the top, when Tadej Pogacar (UAE Emirates) accelerated and opened a gap. Only Evenepoel and Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) had the power to go after the Slovenian, cresting the summit just a few seconds behind. The roads were wet in the first part of the descent, and that slowed the Belgian a bit, who was caught by the chasing group and briefly dropped.

On the outskirts of Valloire, where the Tour returned after five years, Remco bridged across and took over the front, driving a high tempo under the flamme rouge and then accelerating in sight of the finish line to take runner-up after outsprinting his opponents and score his first ever podium at the race. It was a confidence-boosting result for Evenepoel, who jumped to second overall and strengthened his grip on the white jersey. The Belgian is joined in the top ten by his teammate Mikel Landa, whose solid ride helped him make a huge jump in the rankings, up to seventh.

“I am satisfied with my day. It was the first mountain stage of the race, we went to high altitude and had a lot of meters of climbing. The team did a great job, we were up there and can be content with the way we rode. When the attacks came on the steepest part of the Galibier, I did my best to limit the losses, and on the descent, I tried to come back, but the roads were a bit sketchy and I lost some time there. Despite this, I continued to fight and I’m quite happy with my second place on the stage. It’s a good result for the morale and we’ll look to build on this”, said Evenepoel after what was one of his most impressive displays in the mountains.

 

Photo credit: ©Tim De Waele / Getty Images

Race details

1 Tadej Pogačar
UAE Team Emirates
3:46:38
2 Remco Evenepoel
Soudal Quick-Step
0:35
3 Juan Ayuso Pesquera
UAE Team Emirates
0:35
4 Primož Roglič
Red Bull - BORA - hansgrohe
0:35
5 Jonas Vingegaard Hansen
Team Visma | Lease a Bike
0:37
6 Carlos Rodríguez Cano
INEOS Grenadiers
0:37
7 Mikel Landa Meana
Soudal Quick-Step
0:53
8 João Almeida
UAE Team Emirates
0:53
9 Giulio Ciccone
Lidl - Trek
2:41
10 Santiago Buitrago Sánchez
Bahrain - Victorious
2:41
18 Ilan Van Wilder
Soudal Quick-Step
4:01
29 Jan Hirt
Soudal Quick-Step
4:07
41 Louis Vervaeke
Soudal Quick-Step
8:32
75 Gianni Moscon
Soudal Quick-Step
15:25
134 Yves Lampaert
Soudal Quick-Step
31:20
DNS Casper Pedersen
Soudal Quick-Step
-03:46:38
1 Tadej Pogačar
UAE Team Emirates
19:06:38
2 Remco Evenepoel
Soudal Quick-Step
0:45
3 Jonas Vingegaard Hansen
Team Visma | Lease a Bike
0:50
4 Juan Ayuso Pesquera
UAE Team Emirates
1:10
5 Primož Roglič
Red Bull - BORA - hansgrohe
1:14
6 Carlos Rodríguez Cano
INEOS Grenadiers
1:16
7 Mikel Landa Meana
Soudal Quick-Step
1:32
8 João Almeida
UAE Team Emirates
1:32
9 Giulio Ciccone
Lidl - Trek
3:20
10 Egan Bernal Gómez
INEOS Grenadiers
3:21
26 Ilan Van Wilder
Soudal Quick-Step
5:41
50 Louis Vervaeke
Soudal Quick-Step
26:32
82 Gianni Moscon
Soudal Quick-Step
50:14
93 Jan Hirt
Soudal Quick-Step
56:54
143 Yves Lampaert
Soudal Quick-Step
1:19:53
1 Jonas Abrahamsen
Uno-X Mobility
87 pt
2 Biniam Girmay Hailu
Intermarché - Wanty
83 pt
3 Mads Pedersen
Lidl - Trek
79 pt
4 Kévin Vauquelin
60 pt
5 Bryan Coquard
Cofidis
45 pt
6 Tadej Pogačar
UAE Team Emirates
42 pt
7 Fernando Gaviria Rendon
Movistar Team
41 pt
8 Jasper Philipsen
Alpecin - Deceuninck
38 pt
9 Quentin Pacher
Groupama - FDJ
35 pt
10 Remco Evenepoel
Soudal Quick-Step
33 pt
42 Mikel Landa Meana
Soudal Quick-Step
9 pt
49 Louis Vervaeke
Soudal Quick-Step
8 pt
62 Ilan Van Wilder
Soudal Quick-Step
4 pt
1 Jonas Abrahamsen
Uno-X Mobility
24 pt
2 Tadej Pogačar
UAE Team Emirates
20 pt
3 Valentin Madouas
Groupama - FDJ
16 pt
4 Jonas Vingegaard Hansen
Team Visma | Lease a Bike
15 pt
5 Remco Evenepoel
Soudal Quick-Step
12 pt
6 Stephen Williams
Israel - Premier Tech
10 pt
7 Carlos Rodríguez Cano
INEOS Grenadiers
10 pt
8 Frank van den Broek
Team dsm-firmenich PostNL
9 pt
9 Ion Izagirre Insausti
Cofidis
8 pt
10 Juan Ayuso Pesquera
UAE Team Emirates
8 pt
13 Mikel Landa Meana
Soudal Quick-Step
4 pt
1 Remco Evenepoel
Soudal Quick-Step
19:07:23
2 Juan Ayuso Pesquera
UAE Team Emirates
0:25
3 Carlos Rodríguez Cano
INEOS Grenadiers
0:31
4 Matteo Jorgenson
Team Visma | Lease a Bike
2:36
5 Santiago Buitrago Sánchez
Bahrain - Victorious
3:25
6 Ilan Van Wilder
Soudal Quick-Step
4:56
7 Ben Healy
EF Education - EasyPost
7:27
8 Javier Romo
Movistar Team
8:15
9 Thomas Pidcock
INEOS Grenadiers
11:38
10 Oscar Onley
Team dsm-firmenich PostNL
11:57
1 UAE Team Emirates 57:22:58
2 INEOS Grenadiers 4:54
3 Soudal Quick-Step 5:02
4 Red Bull - BORA - hansgrohe 6:34
5 Bahrain - Victorious 11:27
6 Movistar Team 13:24
7 Team Visma | Lease a Bike 17:39
8 EF Education - EasyPost 23:37
9 Lidl - Trek 28:41
10 Team dsm-firmenich PostNL 34:33

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