Le Tour: Evenepoel strengthens grip on third overall

Le Tour: Evenepoel strengthens grip on third overall

Remco Evenepoel became the first Belgian rider in the last 46 years to sit on the podium of the Tour de France after 15 stages, following a rock-solid display on the queen stage of the race, which featured 5400 vertical meters and five draining classified climbs: Col de Peyresourde, Col de Menté, Col du Portet d’Aspet, Col d’Agnes and Plateau de Beille.

It was a long and sweltering day in the saddle, the heat and the furious pace reducing the peloton to around 15 riders by the time they arrived at the foot of Plateau de Beille, which was making its seventh appearance at the race. It was on those arduous slopes that things exploded in the GC group as the first two riders in the standings attacked and rode clear. Just like on Pla d’Adet, Remco went with his own pace, basically riding a mountain time trial all the way to the top.

The leader of the youth classification caught and passed the survivors of the day-long breakaway, but more importantly, he increased his gap over his closest rivals to the podium as he continued to climb steadily. Evenepoel emptied the tank without going into the red zone, carefully dosing his effort as the kilometers ticked down, and just like on Saturday, he finished in third place behind winner Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates), a result which helped him extend his gap over the next rider on the GC to five minutes and another performance from which he can take heart for the final week of the Tour.

“My race is for the third spot and it’s looking good at the moment. I need to remain at this level, because a hard week in the mountains is coming. Our team was on a high level today, we took time on all the other riders behind me on what was the toughest stage of the Tour so far, so we can be content. Two third places in the Pyrenees is not a bad result I would say, especially as it helped me cement my place in the top three. It’s important to remember that the race is far from being over, but we will remain focused and see how it goes”, said Remco after his 16th top-three finish in a Grand Tour stage.

Mikel Landa was the other Soudal Quick-Step rider to put in a huge and impressive ride on Plateau de Beille, coming home behind Evenepoel, in fourth place. This superb effort – one of Mikel’s best outings of the year – helped the experienced Basque soar into the top five overall with just six stages remaining at the Tour.

“It was a good day and I’m glad Remco extended his gap over the other riders who are going for a podium place. I am satisfied with my display and quite optimistic for the third week. I will continue helping Remco on the hard stages coming in just a couple of days and see how things go for myself and if I can get a good result on the general classification. Now I’m just looking forward to Monday’s rest day”, Mikel said after the last stage in the Pyrenees.

 

Photo credit: ©Tim De Waele / Getty Images

Race details

1 Tadej Pogačar
UAE Team Emirates
5:13:55
2 Jonas Vingegaard Hansen
Team Visma | Lease a Bike
1:08
3 Remco Evenepoel
Soudal Quick-Step
2:51
4 Mikel Landa Meana
Soudal Quick-Step
3:54
5 João Almeida
UAE Team Emirates
4:43
6 Adam Yates
UAE Team Emirates
4:56
7 Santiago Buitrago Sánchez
Bahrain - Victorious
5:08
8 Carlos Rodríguez Cano
INEOS Grenadiers
5:08
9 Richard Carapaz Montenegro
EF Education - EasyPost
5:41
10 Felix Gall
Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale Team
5:57
38 Ilan Van Wilder
Soudal Quick-Step
30:12
59 Gianni Moscon
Soudal Quick-Step
41:00
68 Jan Hirt
Soudal Quick-Step
41:00
117 Yves Lampaert
Soudal Quick-Step
46:36
1 Tadej Pogačar
UAE Team Emirates
61:56:24
2 Jonas Vingegaard Hansen
Team Visma | Lease a Bike
3:09
3 Remco Evenepoel
Soudal Quick-Step
5:19
4 João Almeida
UAE Team Emirates
10:54
5 Mikel Landa Meana
Soudal Quick-Step
11:21
6 Carlos Rodríguez Cano
INEOS Grenadiers
11:27
7 Adam Yates
UAE Team Emirates
13:38
8 Giulio Ciccone
Lidl - Trek
15:48
9 Derek Gee
Israel - Premier Tech
16:12
10 Santiago Buitrago Sánchez
Bahrain - Victorious
16:32
26 Ilan Van Wilder
Soudal Quick-Step
1:14:41
70 Gianni Moscon
Soudal Quick-Step
2:45:54
90 Jan Hirt
Soudal Quick-Step
3:01:18
128 Yves Lampaert
Soudal Quick-Step
3:40:19
1 Biniam Girmay Hailu
Intermarché - Wanty
363 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 Tadej Pogačar
UAE Team Emirates
136 pt
7 Jonas Abrahamsen
Uno-X Mobility
133 pt
8 Wout van Aert
Team Visma | Lease a Bike
114 pt
9 Remco Evenepoel
Soudal Quick-Step
112 pt
10 Fernando Gaviria Rendon
Movistar Team
106 pt
33 Mikel Landa Meana
Soudal Quick-Step
38 pt
87 Ilan Van Wilder
Soudal Quick-Step
7 pt
1 Tadej Pogačar
UAE Team Emirates
77 pt
2 Jonas Vingegaard Hansen
Team Visma | Lease a Bike
58 pt
3 Remco Evenepoel
Soudal Quick-Step
42 pt
4 Jonas Abrahamsen
Uno-X Mobility
36 pt
5 Oier Lazkano López
Movistar Team
35 pt
6 David Gaudu
Groupama - FDJ
30 pt
7 Carlos Rodríguez Cano
INEOS Grenadiers
24 pt
8 Richard Carapaz Montenegro
EF Education - EasyPost
22 pt
9 Ben Healy
EF Education - EasyPost
21 pt
10 Javier Romo
Movistar Team
18 pt
14 Mikel Landa Meana
Soudal Quick-Step
14 pt
1 Remco Evenepoel
Soudal Quick-Step
62:01:43
2 Carlos Rodríguez Cano
INEOS Grenadiers
6:08
3 Santiago Buitrago Sánchez
Bahrain - Victorious
11:13
4 Matteo Jorgenson
Team Visma | Lease a Bike
14:56
5 Ben Healy
EF Education - EasyPost
24:07
6 Javier Romo
Movistar Team
42:46
7 Ilan Van Wilder
Soudal Quick-Step
1:09:22
8 Tobias Halland Johannessen
Uno-X Mobility
1:21:39
9 Jordan Jegat
TotalEnergies
1:43:04
10 Romain Grégoire
Groupama - FDJ
1:49:59
1 UAE Team Emirates 186:12:00
2 Team Visma | Lease a Bike 55:03
3 Soudal Quick-Step 58:59
4 INEOS Grenadiers 1:19:19
5 Lidl - Trek 2:04:45
6 EF Education - EasyPost 2:23:06
7 Movistar Team 2:23:41
8 Bahrain - Victorious 2:26:47
9 Red Bull - BORA - hansgrohe 2:30:01
10 Israel - Premier Tech 3:11:11

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