Vuelta a España leader Remco Evenepoel remained on track for an increasingly likely first Grand Tour victory after coming through the toughest stage of the race with only limited damage to his overall advantage.
As happened on Saturday on La Pandera, on Sunday's stage 15 at Sierra Nevada, Evenepoel lost time to both of his main GC rivals, ceding 36 seconds to Enric Mas (Movistar) and 15 seconds to Primož Roglič (Jumbo-Visma).
But while at La Pandera, the QuickStep-AlphaVinyl leader seemed briefly perilously close to cracking completely on its ultra-steep slopes. On Sierra Nevada, however, Evenepoel never looked out of control. When tested, for sure he ceded some of his GC terrain, it was terrain that he could comfortably afford to lose.
Evenepoel recognised that he had been venturing into unchartered territory on his first-ever summit finish at over 2,000 metres above sea level and that he had had a “bad day” on Saturday.
But as he concluded, if he could have signed for his current position and advantage on GC two weeks ago before the Vuelta began, he would have done so immediately. Furthermore, in the bigger scheme of things, his assured performance in such unfamiliar terrain as Sierra Nevada was “an important step in my development as a GC rider for Grand Tours, too.”
“Yesterday [Saturday] I had a bad day because of the crash and my muscles were really stiff, and I hadn’t slept well. But today I woke up feeling a lot better,” Evenepoel explained after the stage.
“But now l am still more than 1:30 ahead [of Roglič], and I think that’s a lot. Today Enric Mas and [Miguel Angel] Lopez were the best riders. But now I think the two hardest stages of the whole Vuelta are done and we came through it all very well.”
Evenepoel explained that while he frequently slept at altitude, in his opinion training at altitude had fewer advantages, and hence racing in very high mountains was something of a voyage in the dark for him. As he put it, “It was a day of survival for me.”
But Evenepoel had never looked to be hitting a crisis of any kind on the steepest slopes of the Sierra Nevada. Then when the road's gradient eased notably on its higher sections and Mas and Roglič got away, he was able to control the gaps.
“Everything went well,” Evenepoel stated categorically, “it was a big step in my development as a Grand Tour GC rider.”
That said, Evenepoel noted the Vuelta's marked drop off in intensity in the next 48 hours as welcome for both himself and his teammates, “as it’s a rest day and a sprint stage.”
And the long-term the goal in Spain remained clear. “We’ll start the last week with a fresh mindset and fresh legs. We’ve been going well so far and we’ll keep fighting for this," he promised. “The main goal from now on is to keep this jersey."
When considering the Belgian’s prospects of standing on the top step of the podium in Madrid in a week’s time, it's true the road from Sierra Nevada to the capital may yet contain some unforeseen pitfalls. But from here on for Evenepoel - and logically enough after his reaching the race's highest summit finish on Sunday - by rights, it should be downhill all the way.
