Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana: Remco Evenepoel wins opening stage

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Remco Evenepoel (QuickStep-AlpaVinyl) immediately took control of the Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana, attacking alone on the final climb and then time trialing to the finish line Torralba del Pinar. 

The 22-year-old endured a difficult 2021 as he returned from the injuries he sustained in his crash at Il Lombardia the previous year, but he has worked quietly during the winter and appeared in impressive early-season form.

Evenepoel held a gap all the way to the finish with Aleksandr Vlasov crossing the line 16 seconds down on his debut for Bora-Hansgrohe. 

Carlos Rodriguez (Ineos Grenadiers) finished third at 32 seconds, with Enric Mas and Alejandro Valverde (Movistar) and a handful of others at the same time. Thanks to time bonuses, Evenepoel leads Vlasov by 19 seconds in the overall standings, with Rodriguez third at 37 seconds.

Evenepoel waved his arms to incite the crowd to cheer his name, clearly happy to be back to his best.    

“It’s amazing, it’s the perfect way to start. We had confidence I could do well on this stage and on this finish,” he said before pulling on the bright yellow leader’s jersey. 

“The team tried to put me as comfortable as possible during the whole day. I think it worked out perfectly. We knew that part of the climb where I attacked was the hardest part, so I had to try to go all out there. It was quite hard to keep it until the finish but I’m happy to be able to win with a small gap. I think that’s more comfortable for the third stage. I think it’s the perfect start for us.”

'Now the train is rolling'

Evenepoel took QuickStep-AlphaVinyl’s first win of 2022 after his teammates controlled the stage.

Joan Bou (Euskaltel-Euskadi), Jesús Ezquerra (Burgos-BH), David González (Caja Rural), the USA’s Ben King (Human Powered Health) and Iván Moreno (Kern Pharma) formed the early break but they were always kept under control as the race headed to the mid-stage climb of El Remolcador.

The gap was down to 90 seconds and the peloton swept up the five with 30km and final climbs to go. Matej Mohoric (Bahrain Victorious) won the intermediate sprint in Sueras with 20km remaining, but the pace was high and the overall contenders were keen to race.

On the 4.6km-long Torralba del Pinar, Movistar lined out the select group and Mas made an attack with 5km left in the stage.

Antwan Tolhoek made another move on his debut with Trek-Segafredo, and he was joined by Jakob Fugslang (Israel-Premier Terch). However Evenepoel soon showed who was the strongest with a solo attack that left his rivals struggling. He opened a gap as the gradient eased and the climb ended and then he dived down the short descent to the finish.

Evenepoel only started racing at the Giro d’Italia in May last year following his long rehabilitation from the injuries he suffered at Il Lombardia in 2020. He was still successful during the rest of 2021 but was clearly not at his best and clashed with fellow Belgian Wout van Aert at the World Championships. After spending much of the winter training in Spain and avoiding the conflicts of social media, he appears back to the level of 2020 when he won the early-season Vuelta a San Juan and the Volta ao Algarve em Bicicleta, as well as the Vuelta a Burgos and Tour de Pologne.

“I think I can say that I’m back at a really good level,” Evenepoel said. “Last year, I started the season with a lot of doubts, with a lot of unknowns. Now I knew and the team knew that I was ready to race again and that I could push my best power in training. All the hard work paid off. For me, my coach and for my family, it’s a big relief that I’m back at my top level.”

QuickStep-AlpaVinyl will now have to defend the race lead during Thursday's rolling 171km stage from Bétera to Torrent, while also perhaps working to set up sprinter Fabio Jakobsen, but Evenepoel did not seem concerned about that.

“Fabio is also in really good shape. He saved his legs on the last climb but tomorrow (Thursday) we'll try to win the stage with Fabio and then on Friday we’ll try to defend the jersey of course,” Evenpoel said. “This is the first victory of the season for the team, now the train is rolling.”