Remco Evenepoel: I cannot say I’m going to win the Vuelta a España

Half an hour after stage 6 of the Vuelta a España had finished atop Pico Jano, Remco Evenepoel walked into the press conference truck wearing the red jersey and already bearing a sizeable lead on his overall rivals. His performance suggested rather emphatically that he could go on and win this race in Madrid, even if he declined to say as much when he picked up the microphone.

“Oh, it’s a difficult question. There are still two more weeks of racing, and a lot of hard stages to come already this week,” Evenepoel said. “Now we are in red, we will do everything to keep it for as long as possible, but I cannot say on this moment that I’m going to win the Vuelta, not at all. It’s really difficult to say.”

It’s a whole lot easier to think it, mind, after his remarkable exhibition in Cantabria on the first mountain stage of the Vuelta. Amid low cloud and driving rain, Evenepoel delivered the latest outlandish feat of strength of his young career, a display that perhaps even surpassed his astonishing efforts at Liège-Bastogne-Liège and the Clásica San Sebastián earlier this season.

Evenepoel had to settle for second place on the stage, 15 seconds behind the earlier escapee Jay Vine (Alpecin-Deceuninck), but he had the considerable consolation of seizing the maillot rojo and distancing almost all of the pre-race favourites. He now lies 1:01 clear of Primoz Roglic (Jumbo-Visma) and almost two ahead of Simon Yates (BikeExchange-Jayco) and Jai Hindley (Bora-Hansgrohe), while Richard Carapaz (Ineos) is already 2:56 back.

“I think what I achieved today is as beautiful as my win in Liège,” Evenepoel said. “My first leader’s jersey in a Grand Tour is an amazing feeling, and even though I didn’t win the stage, it’s the same feeling for me. Obviously, the Vuelta is far from over, that’s for sure, but we’re going to do our maximum to try to keep the jersey for the next three days and then we’ll see what it brings. There’s still something like 14 stages to go.”

When Evenepoel began his forcing with 9km of Pico Jano remaining, Carapaz was quickly distanced, with only an elite cadre of men like Roglic, Hindley and Yates able to follow his initial onslaught. Within a mile or so, however, even they had to relent under the sheer weight of his forcing. Only Enric Mas (Movistar) could hold his wheel, though the Spaniard’s grimace suggested that he was holding on by his fingertips at times.

“I did ask for help, but he never answered me, so that’s why I kept going because I knew the gap was growing on the group of Yates and all the guys,” said Evenepoel, who outkicked Mas for second place on the stage to pick up the time bonus that ensured he would divest Rudy Molard (Groupama-FDJ) of red. Mas, meanwhile, moves up to third overall, 28 seconds behind his former teammate.

“Maybe if we worked together, we could have caught the guy in the break, but that’s not important: the important thing was to stretch the lead to the other strong climbers,” Evenepoel said. “I think Enric had all the reasons just to follow. I’m not mad at all. I think he did a perfect race as well. He looks really strong, in shape to do well in this Vuelta.”

Patience

Earlier this season, Evenepoel played against type en route to victory at the Volta ao Algarve, opting to hold fire on the summit finish at Alto da Fóia and stake everything on the pivotal time trial. At that point, it appeared that the young man in a hurry was learning the value of patience, but he reverted to his default setting – unbridled aggression – at Pico Jano on Thursday.

Evenepoel’s QuickStep-AlphaVinyl teammate Julian Alaphilippe led the peloton over the penultimate ascent of Collada de Brenes and along the valley road to the final climb. On the lower slopes of Pico Jano, Fausto Masnada dropped back from the break to offer assistance before Evenepoel took up the reins with some 9km of harsh road still to come.

“It was not really planned to attack, because we didn’t know the weather conditions or the feeling of the legs. Nothing was planned,” Evenepoel insisted. “To put actions like this into real life is always tricky. Training on steep climbs is something I’ve been focusing on for last two or three months, and it’s paid off, but it’s all about legs on the day rather than the training.”

Before this Vuelta began, Evenepoel’s prospects seemed to hinge on how well he could limit the damage to the pure climbers ahead of next week’s stage 10 time trial to Alicante. On the evidence of his display at Pico Jano, however, he will have little reason to view this weekend’s summit finishes at Colláu Fancuaya and Les Praeres with trepidation.

“I’ll do the best I can and try to be as high as possible on GC, but I think the main focus is to win a stage,” said Evenepoel, even if it’s hard to imagine that will be the summit of his ambition from here. “I’ve been dreaming of this for two or three months since I started my preparation. But we’re going to have to be very focused every day because the races in Spain are always special.”