Remco Evenepoel Wins Again | Rampage Continues

Five wins in seven days of competition: if anyone was thinking Tadej Pogačar was going to have it all his own way this year, Remco Evenepoel begs to differ.

The Belgian bullet uncorked another sparkling performance on stage 4 of the Tour Valencian Community on Saturday, surging clear of a select group of riders on the Puig de la Llorença with 13km to go and soloing from there along rolling roads to the finish.

He was chased behind by several strong riders, amongst them João Almeida (Uae Emirates-xrg), Antonio Tiberi (Bahrain Victorious) and the American Brandon McNulty (UAE Emirates-XRG), overall winner two years ago, but was too strong for them. The presence of Evenepoel’s Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe teammate Giulio Pellizzari also complicated things for them.

Evenepoel eventually reached the finish in Teulada Moraira 24 second clear of Almeida, Pellizzari and Tiberi, while McNulty was 36 seconds back and fellow US rider Magnus Sheffield (Ineos Grenadiers) was at 1:02.

“It was really difficult,” Evenepoel admitted. “Of course I went quite all out on the last part of the Puig de la Llorença and then once we turned left on the big road, it was headwind so it was really hard to keep up. But I know if it is hard for me, it is also hard for the guys in the back. So I just kept pushing.”

Given his time trial strength and his stomping early-season form, it was always going to be hard for the chasers to get him back. They did what they could but, just as his rivals have found elsewhere this year, he is riding extremely strongly at present.

The win follows on from three victories in the Challenge Mallorca races, one of which being a team time trial, plus the individual time trial on Thursday on stage two of the Valenciana race.

‘Nobody helped us’

Saturday’s victory is a sort of payback for Evenepoel, who was disappointed by the decision of the race organizers to neutralize the GC race in the time trial. Strong winds buffeted the course, prompting the decision to award a stage victory but not to apply the times to the GC.

Evenepoel finished eight seconds clear of teammate Aleksandr Vlasov in the TT, and would normally have taken over at the top of the general classification. However the neutralizing of the GC times meant that Biniam Girmay (NSN Cycling Team) retained the lead starting Saturday.

He got it tough on the hills and finished a long, long way back. Evenepoel duly took over the race lead and holds a 29 second advantage over Almeida heading into Sunday’s finale. Pellizzari and Tiberi are at 31 and 35 seconds, while McNulty is at 47.

Sunday’s stage to Valencia is just 94.7km in length. It includes a first category climb approximately halfway through but is flat or downhill thereafter, making a bunch sprint the most likely outcome.

Evenepoel’s Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe team will row in behind him to defend the jersey and, based on his comments after Saturday’s win, they should be more than strong enough.

“Just one word for the team, they were really incredible today,” he said. “I think from the first meters until the very last ones, they worked for me. Everybody did their part of the job, nobody helped us, which I completely understand.

“To finish it off like this with the plan like we exactly wanted is just amazing. And also to see Giulio to finish third after such a strong work is really incredible. An amazing day for us.”

If Evenepoel does indeed win, the GC success will mark his sixth triumph of the season. It’s still only February and there are plenty of bigger races ahead but, considering how he is going thus far, his morale and that of the team will be sky high.

As for McNulty and Sheffield, they will also take big encouragement from what is their first race of the year.