Remco Evenepoel lays down the law from the get-go in Valenciana

TORRALBA DEL PINAR SPAIN FEBRUARY 02 Remco Evenepoel of Belgium and Team QuickStep Alpha Vinyl celebrates at podium as yellow leader jersey winner during the 73rd Volta A La Comunitat Valenciana 2022 Stage 1 a 1667km stage from Les Alqueries to Torralba Del Pinar 735m VCV2022 on February 02 2022 in Torralba Del Pinar Spain Photo by Dario BelingheriGetty Images
Remco Evenepoel (QuickStep-AlphaVinyl) wins opener at Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana (Image credit: Dario Belingheri/Getty Images)

Belgium’s Remco Evenepoel lived up to expectations and more on stage 1 of the Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana as the QuickStep-AlphaVinyl star blasted away from the opposition for victory in his first race of the season in Spain.

Roughly a kilometre from the summit of the tougher-than-anticipated Torralba del Pinar climb, Evenepoel surged out of a shattering front group and quickly established a gap of 15 seconds. That proved to be more than enough to claim his and his team’s first win of 2022 and to place himself at the head of the overall classification. 

Thank you for reading 5 articles in the past 30 days*

Join now for unlimited access

Enjoy your first month for just £1 / $1 / €1

*Read any 5 articles for free in each 30-day period, this automatically resets

After your trial you will be billed £4.99 $7.99 €5.99 per month, cancel anytime. Or sign up for one year for just £49 $79 €59

Join now for unlimited access

Try your first month for just £1 / $1 / €1

Alasdair Fotheringham

Alasdair Fotheringham has been reporting on cycling since 1991. He has covered every Tour de France since 1992 bar one, as well as numerous other bike races of all shapes and sizes, ranging from the Olympic Games in 2008 to the now sadly defunct Subida a Urkiola hill climb in Spain. As well as working for Cyclingnews, he has also written for The IndependentThe GuardianProCycling, The Express and Reuters.