Evenepoel impresses on first summit finish of Le Tour

Evenepoel impresses on first summit finish of Le Tour

Ten years on from its previous appearance, Pla d’Adet made its Tour de France return, at the end of a tough stage 14 that also featured the iconic Col du Tourmalet and Hourquette d’Ancizan. The climb made famous in 1974 by Raymond Poulidor, who took a fantastic solo win from a field that included the likes of Eddy Merckx and Joaquim Agostinho, averaged 7.9% over 10.6 kilometers and ended up seriously testing the GC men.

Soudal Quick-Step was one of the strongest teams out there, and only one of the two to tackle the last HC ascent with more than three men. Remco Evenepoel, who started the day second in the overall standings, had Jan Hirt, Mikel Landa and Ilan Van Wilder with him as they started the steep gradients of Pla d’Adet. The Wolfpack pushed a solid tempo at the front, making sure Evenepoel remained in a good position on the first three kilometers, the toughest of the climb.

When the winners of the last four editions attacked with five kilometers to go, Remco at first tried to respond to these accelerations before deciding to ride his own tempo as he conjured up a valiant effort to limit the losses. This allowed the 24-year-old Belgian to keep enough in the tank for the final part of the stage, while at the same time opening a good gap on the first chasing group. Evenepoel concluded the stage won by Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates) in third place – his fourth podium of this edition – and now sits in the same position on the general classification ahead of the second consecutive day in the Pyrenees.

“Third on this hard stage is a good result and I am satisfied, especially as the two guys who finished in front of me were stronger and have a lot more experience than me in these kinds of stages. The team did a great job the entire day, and especially on the final climb, and I want to thank them for that. To be on the podium on the first stage in the Pyrenees is an important morale-boost for Sunday’s stage. I have four minutes on the next rider in the rankings, which is good at the moment, but the Tour is still long and we need to remain at the top of our game and continue to give our best”, said Remco, who remained at the top of the youth classification.

 

Photo credit: ©Tim De Waele / Getty Images

Race details

1 Tadej Pogačar
UAE Team Emirates
4:01:51
2 Jonas Vingegaard Hansen
Team Visma | Lease a Bike
0:39
3 Remco Evenepoel
Soudal Quick-Step
1:10
4 Carlos Rodríguez Cano
INEOS Grenadiers
1:19
5 Giulio Ciccone
Lidl - Trek
1:23
6 Santiago Buitrago Sánchez
Bahrain - Victorious
1:23
7 Adam Yates
UAE Team Emirates
1:23
8 Felix Gall
Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale Team
1:26
9 Matteo Jorgenson
Team Visma | Lease a Bike
1:29
10 Derek Gee
Israel - Premier Tech
1:29
11 Mikel Landa Meana
Soudal Quick-Step
1:29
30 Ilan Van Wilder
Soudal Quick-Step
10:53
35 Jan Hirt
Soudal Quick-Step
11:57
74 Gianni Moscon
Soudal Quick-Step
27:22
111 Yves Lampaert
Soudal Quick-Step
35:25
DNF Louis Vervaeke
Soudal Quick-Step
-04:01:51
1 Tadej Pogačar
UAE Team Emirates
56:42:39
2 Jonas Vingegaard Hansen
Team Visma | Lease a Bike
1:57
3 Remco Evenepoel
Soudal Quick-Step
2:22
4 João Almeida
UAE Team Emirates
6:01
5 Carlos Rodríguez Cano
INEOS Grenadiers
6:09
6 Mikel Landa Meana
Soudal Quick-Step
7:17
7 Adam Yates
UAE Team Emirates
8:32
8 Giulio Ciccone
Lidl - Trek
9:09
9 Derek Gee
Israel - Premier Tech
9:33
10 Matteo Jorgenson
Team Visma | Lease a Bike
10:35
25 Ilan Van Wilder
Soudal Quick-Step
44:19
70 Gianni Moscon
Soudal Quick-Step
2:04:44
91 Jan Hirt
Soudal Quick-Step
2:20:08
128 Yves Lampaert
Soudal Quick-Step
2:53:33
1 Biniam Girmay Hailu
Intermarché - Wanty
353 pt
2 Jasper Philipsen
Alpecin - Deceuninck
277 pt
3 Bryan Coquard
Cofidis
147 pt
4 Arnaud De Lie
Lotto Dstny
142 pt
5 Anthony Turgis
TotalEnergies
141 pt
6 Jonas Abrahamsen
Uno-X Mobility
133 pt
7 Tadej Pogačar
UAE Team Emirates
116 pt
8 Wout van Aert
Team Visma | Lease a Bike
114 pt
9 Pascal Ackermann
Israel - Premier Tech
102 pt
10 Fernando Gaviria Rendon
Movistar Team
100 pt
11 Remco Evenepoel
Soudal Quick-Step
97 pt
47 Mikel Landa Meana
Soudal Quick-Step
25 pt
83 Ilan Van Wilder
Soudal Quick-Step
7 pt
1 Tadej Pogačar
UAE Team Emirates
56 pt
2 Jonas Vingegaard Hansen
Team Visma | Lease a Bike
43 pt
3 Jonas Abrahamsen
Uno-X Mobility
36 pt
4 Remco Evenepoel
Soudal Quick-Step
30 pt
5 Oier Lazkano López
Movistar Team
27 pt
6 Carlos Rodríguez Cano
INEOS Grenadiers
22 pt
7 David Gaudu
Groupama - FDJ
20 pt
8 Ben Healy
EF Education - EasyPost
17 pt
9 Valentin Madouas
Groupama - FDJ
16 pt
10 Bruno Armirail
Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale Team
12 pt
22 Mikel Landa Meana
Soudal Quick-Step
4 pt
1 Remco Evenepoel
Soudal Quick-Step
56:45:01
2 Carlos Rodríguez Cano
INEOS Grenadiers
3:47
3 Matteo Jorgenson
Team Visma | Lease a Bike
8:13
4 Santiago Buitrago Sánchez
Bahrain - Victorious
8:52
5 Ben Healy
EF Education - EasyPost
13:23
6 Javier Romo
Movistar Team
18:31
7 Ilan Van Wilder
Soudal Quick-Step
41:57
8 Tobias Halland Johannessen
Uno-X Mobility
1:17:59
9 Romain Grégoire
Groupama - FDJ
1:20:42
10 Jordan Jegat
TotalEnergies
1:22:18
1 UAE Team Emirates 170:20:36
2 Soudal Quick-Step 31:41
3 Team Visma | Lease a Bike 32:08
4 INEOS Grenadiers 35:56
5 Bahrain - Victorious 1:06:32
6 Movistar Team 1:17:43
7 Lidl - Trek 1:18:06
8 EF Education - EasyPost 1:32:33
9 Red Bull - BORA - hansgrohe 1:41:51
10 Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale Team 1:53:30

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