Belgium Tour: Remco Evenepoel wins stage 2 time trial

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Remco Evenepoel (Deceuninck-QuickStep) delivered on the expectation to win the stage 2 time trial at the Baloise Belgium Tour. 

After showing such brilliant form on the opening day, the young Belgian was hot favourite to win the stage, but was pushed close by teammate Yves Lampaert, who was one second quicker at the intermediate time check.

Evenepoel now holds a lead of 45 seconds ahead of Lampaert on the general classification.

Prior to the stage, the talk wasn’t so much if Evenepoel would win the stage, but rather by how much.

As it happened his teammate pushed him close, and his winning advantage was a slender one. But the two Deceuninck-QuickStep riders were miles ahead of the rest of the field, with teenager Finn Fisher-Black (Jumbo-Visma) posting the third fastest time a whole eighteen seconds slower.

To put into context just how big a time difference that is for such a short time trial course, there were a total of twenty riders who finished within eighteen seconds of Fisher-Black’s time.

Fisher-Black was the best of 27 riders who started the day 43 seconds down on GC, and as a result moves up to fourth overall, 1:01 down on Evenepoel.

Koen Bouwman (Jumbo-Visma) finished eighth on the stage to move up to fifth on GC, while Conor Swift (Arkea-Samsic) moves up to sixth. 

How it unfolded

The time trial route at Knokke-Heist was short, lasting only 11.2km, and totally flat.

Although the length of the time trial meant that gaps between the favourites were unlikely to be particularly big, the lack of significant climbs in any of the three stages later in the race meant that it was likely to be decisive in how the GC race took shape.

One of the pre-stage favourites, and the man tipped as possibly the only rider to challenge Evenepoel against the clock was Victor Campenaerts (Qhubeka Asssos), but he chose to abandon the race overnight having suffered with cramps during yesterday’s stage.

Charles Quarterman (Trek-Segafredo) set an early benchmark when he posted the first sub-12:30 time, until young Frenchman Thibault Guernalec (Arkea-Samsic) came in with a time seven seconds quicker. 

That proved to be a tough time to beat. Lasse Norman Hansen (Qhubeka Assos) came agonisingly close, falling just 0.4 seconds short, and specialist against the clock Ryan Mullen (Trek-Segafredo) faded in the second half after setting the fastest intermediate time.  

Guernalec’s time was eventually toppled by Frederik Frison (Lotto-Soudal), who sped up in the second half to go two seconds quicker at the finish.

Frison’s time was then beaten by Rune Herregodts (Sport Vlaanderen-Baloise), although by the smallest possible margins ⁠— he reached the line with what appeared to be the exact same time, but was sent to the hot seat when it was determined to be less than one-hundredth of a second quicker.

Herregodts remained in that hot seat for a considerable amount of time, even as the riders high up on GC went out on the road. But 19-year-old Fisher-Black eventually knocked him off the top of the leaderboard, demonstrating his considerable talent by arriving at the line with a time that was one second quicker.

Fisher-Black’s time at the top was much shorter, however, as Yves Lampaert absolutely smashed his time by a whopping sixteen seconds. 

Given how close the gaps had been between the leaders up until now, that was an enormous advantage, and suggested that Lampaert’s time might even be difficult for Evenepoel to beat.

Indeed, Evenepoel found himself one second slower at the intermediate time check, but motored on to take the stage victory.

He extends his overall lead to 45 seconds on GC, and should have few problems defending it on tomorrow’s flat stage, which is expected to end in a bunch sprint.