'Optimists live longer than pessimists' is a famous Belgian saying, and Remco Evenepoel’s bid for back-to-back stage wins in the Vuelta a España on Sunday proved too ambitious even for the Soudal-QuickStep star.
But the Belgian nonetheless confirmed that even with two stage wins in the bag and the King of the Mountains jersey firmly on his shoulders, his thirst for more triumphs in this year’s Vuelta remains unquenched - and will likely see him battling for more victories in the third week.
Evenepoel ‘attacks and attacks (and attacks again)’ the Vuelta website said at one point early on Sunday’s ultra-fast transition stage 15 from Pamplona to Lekunberri, with the break only forming after two hours of non-stop battling to get in the move and UAE then stirring things up with some more action on the GC front.
As for whether he wanted to gain more points in the KoM rankings or go for a second stage win, Evenepoel told sporza.be the initial plan was “both.”
Evenepoel finally ran out of legs on the second and definitive ascent of the category 2 climb Zuarrarrate, crossing the line in fourth place.
But while he is now liberated of any responsibility in the overall battle after Friday’s disastrous stage 13 to the Tourmalet, Evenepoel half-jokingly said at the finish that Jumbo-Visma still seemed to believe that he could stage a comeback in the GC, and he will have to lose more time on Tuesday to convince them that he is no longer an overall threat.
After that, Evenepoel will be looking to bolster his lead in the mountains when the race reaches Asturias on Wednesday.
"It’s great fun to ride around like this," Evenepoel told sporza.be "Until they [Jumbo-Visma] start to push back for fear that I will take back time in the general classification."
He added with a grin, "I had to explain ten times to Jonas Vingegaard that I am no longer going for the general classification, but he didn't believe me.”
Jumbo-Visma’s bids to control the breakaway likely overlapped with their efforts to keep UAE Team Emirates Marc Soler, fifth overall and very active in the first half of the stage, under control. But in either case, Evenepoel, currently running 15th and over 16 minutes down on GC, said he would be sure to lose as much time as possible on Tuesday’s transition stage to make sure he laid any doubts about an overall ‘comeback’ to rest.
"I will definitely ease back that day there is only one categorized climb” - the category 2 finish at Bejes, "but I am ahead by quite a few points. So I will take two good rest days and ensure there’s a good time loss before trying to get into the action in the two big mountains stages that follow.”
Evenepoel’s participation in the breakaway has had the added benefit of strengthening his overall lead in the mountains ranking by eight points, which is now up to 71 points, nearly double closest pursuer Michael Storer’s total of 39.
"You can't have everything,” Evenepoel concluded, “and I went quite deep today. Klaas (Lodewyck, sports director - Ed.) kept pushing me over the radio to continue and I got the most out of it with a 4th place."
"But I quickly felt that my legs were still suffering from yesterday and when it came to taking on the riders in today’s break who had fresh legs, a win wasn’t possible.” As a way to round off his rollercoaster week, though, it was hardly the worst of finales.
