Another race, another outlandish feat of strength. Remco Evenepoel has long since exhausted all superlatives during his short career as a professional. By now, there's little choice but to rinse them out and use them again. Every demonstration seems just as striking as the one that came before.
The umpteenth display of Evenepoel's still-precocious power came on the rippling road between Vila Real de Santo António and Tavira on Saturday, as he dominated the stage 4 time trial of the Volta ao Algarve. A second overall victory in this race for the QuickStep-AlphaVinyl leader seems inevitable when it concludes atop Alto do Malhão on Sunday.
The results sheet told its own story. In a time trial of 32.2 kilometres, Evenpoel put almost a minute into Stefan Küng (Groupama-FDJ), the European champion in the discipline. Evenepoel's average speed was 51.089kph. Nobody else could break the 50kph mark.
There was a visual demonstration of Evenepoel's dominance, too, as he stalked his two-minute man Sven Erik Bystrøm on the climb out of Pisa Barro, which came midway through the test. While Bystrøm's shoulders rocked as he battled the gradient, Evenepoel's were motionless as he sat tucked in his aerodynamic position, legs turning inexorably as he shot past. Where he was going, nobody could follow.
"The wind was blowing quite a lot, so it was a bit dangerous in the downhill so I didn't take any risks," Evenepoel said. "I'm happy that I survived it without any problems, and then on the climb I just went all out without hesitating. I went full gas. Pure feeling and power wise, I think that it was my best time trial ever."
Ahead of the race, Evenepoel revealed that he had tweaked his time trial position during the off-season and he made a point of using his time trial bike while warming down after the first two stages to familiarise himself further with the new set-up.
According to Het Laatste Nieuws, his cranks are now a couple of millimetres shorter than before and his hands have been brought closer together, though on Saturday evening, the Belgian suggested his strength work during the off-season had contributed to his crushing display here.
"We trained on some specific muscles this winter and I think that I improved my long endurance efforts," Evenepoel said.
"Time trials like this suit me very much, and I'm very happy that I could win by such a big lead. I didn't expect to win with such a big lead because Küng is also one of the best time triallists in the world, together with [Filippo] Ganna, Wout [van Aert], [Primož] Roglič, me and these other guys. I'm very proud to put in this performance here in Portugal."
A different strategy
Evenepoel's overall approach to this race was slightly different, too, of course. He arrived in Portugal after suffering a rare stage racing defeat at the Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana, where Aleksandr Vlasov divested him of yellow on the gravel-strewn climb to Antenas del Maigmó.
Throughout his short career to date, Evenepoel's default setting has been 'aggressive' and his instinctive response to setbacks has been all-out attack.
A swift and forceful response was expected on the opening summit finish of the Volta ao Algarve on Thursday, but instead Evenepoel opted for a more measured approach to the Alto da Fóia, maintaining a watching brief as David Gaudu sprinted to stage victory.
"I think it was the perfect sensations with the eyes on Saturday," he said then. It turns out he wasn't bluffing.
"Yeah, I think you have to be smart, no? Everybody wants to win, but sometimes you just need to have a good plan and a good strategy," Evenepoel said on Saturday evening, even if he was playing against type with that conservative approach on the Alto da Fóia.
"It's always a risk not to try and do anything because you can have a flat tyre or you can crash in a time trial, and if that happens, your race is over."
In the overall standings, Evenepoel now holds a lead of 1:06 over Ethan Hayter (Ineos Grenadiers), 1:25 over Brandon McNulty (UAE Team Emirates) and 1:30 on Daniel Martínez (Ineos Grenadiers).
Sunday's final stage, with its two circuits over the short but sharp Alto do Malhão always provides an ample platform for would-be attackers, but as the sun dipped slowly over Tavira on Saturday evening and Evenepoel was called back to the podium to pose for pictures with children from a local cycling club, it was hard to shake the feeling that the yellow jersey was now secure.
"Ok, that's quite a big gap but anything can happen," Evenepoel said when informed of his lead. "It's still a hard day tomorrow. We have to be focussed and try not to do anything stupid and try to avoid problems."
On this evidence, it's hard to imagine Evenpoel won't find a solution to any problems that might arise.
