Remco Evenepoel's long-distance bid to win on the Angliru failed to work out but the Belgian remained upbeat all the same and promised more attacks in the final days of the Vuelta a España.
Caught 5.5 kilometres from the finish, Evenepoel 's breakaway nonetheless saw the Belgian strengthen his overall lead in the King of the Mountains competition, with a new margin of 40 points on closest pursuer Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma).
He later revealed that he had not been overly optimistic about his chances of triumphing on the Angliru, given race leader Sepp Kuss had told him beforehand that Jumbo would be pushing for the win.
"I immediately told the radio that I was purely going for the points on the first two cols," Evenepoel, who was supported on the attack by teammate Mattia Cattaneo, told Sporza.
With a maximum advantage of 2:30 when in the break, Evenepoel said he knew it would be "impossible to win". But he thanked Cattaneo for his hard work helping him to cross the two preceding category 1 climbs in first place, boosting his mountains total by 20 points.
Unlike on Wednesday's ascent to the Angliru, Evenepoel predicted that the break would likely succeed in going clear on Thursday's final stage in the mountains of Asturias. While uncertain of his chances of making it into the move for a third time in four stages, Evenepoel said he would try to get in on a break when the race went through the sierras of Madrid on Saturday.
As for Jumbo-Visma's continued dominance of the Vuelta, Evenepoel said he could only be impressed and that the ongoing uncertainty over who would emerge as the top rider in the squad was "exciting." However, he also expressed the hope that current leader Sepp Kuss would be the winner in Madrid.
"They are the only team that deserves to win this Vuelta, and whoever it is [who wins] doesn't matter. But it would be nice if it were with Kuss," he told Sporza. "That way they'd win a Grand Tour with three different riders this year."
