Tunnel incident puts Remco Evenepoel on back foot for Giro d'Italia gravel climb

Giro dItalia 2021 104th Edition 9th stage Castel di Sangro Campo Felice Rocca di Cambio 158 km 16052021 Remco Evenepoel BEL Deceuninck QuickStep photo Ilario BiondiBettiniPhoto2021
Remco Evenepoel (Deceuninck-QuickStep) racing toward fourth place on stage 9 (Image credit: Bettini Photo)

Remco Evenepoel and his Deceuninck-QuickStep team remained upbeat after Sunday’s stage of the Giro d’Italia, where the Belgian lost minimal time on the final climb to stage winner and new race leader Egan Bernal (Ineos Grenadiers).

Evenepoel played down what the Belgian squad called an "incident" in the long road tunnel shortly before the final climb, where he said that Bernal and one of his teammates had almost touched wheels in front of him, to their mutual disadvantage.

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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.