What number! The Belgian Remco Evenepoel, who lost all hope on Friday to retain his Vuelta titlefound his legs to win the 14th stage of the Tour of Spain cycling solo on Saturday between Sauveterre-de-Béarn and Puerto de Belagua, ahead of Frenchman Romain Bardet.
A champion reaction. Left behind in the general classification, more than 27 minutes behind leader Sepp Kuss (Jumbo-Visma), “the little cannibal” quickly bounced back, offering himself a fourth stage victory with a taste of revenge on the Vuelta.
“I had a lot of things on my mind”
Friday, in the queen stage of the Tourmalet, the Soudal-Quick Step rider gave up on the first pass, 90 km from the finish, overtaken by the trio of leaders of the overpowering Jumbo-Visma, Sepp Kuss, Primoz Roglic and Jonas Vingegaard, who have since been in the first three places in the general classification.
“Yesterday (Friday) was a very complicated day, I couldn’t sleep well, I had a lot of things on my mind. And this morning I woke up and said to myself, ‘We have to go’,” declared the Belgian champion on Eurosport after the race.
Revengeful, Evenepoel attacked from the first kilometers of the race, followed first by Thomas de Gendt then by around twenty runners, to open up a first gap with the peloton. The favorites left the breakaway as they approached the first difficulty of the day, the Col de la Hourcère. It was at the top of this hors category pass that Remco Evenepoel and Romain Bardet launched their number, 91 km from the finish.
Bardet had “the impression of being faced with the wind”
“We were all at it at the start, then I found myself alone with Romain, we made a nice gap on the descent. He cooperated very well with me,” summarized Evenepoel, who spent more than 140 kilometers in the lead.
The Frenchman tried to follow him as best he could but let go 4 km from the line, leaving the Belgian to fly away to victory, the 49th of his career.
“It’s not every day that we ride with legends up front. I felt really good today, I had the perfect race. (…) I had good legs. I know Remco, I knew that he doesn’t just want to win a stage, he wants to win at Merckx so I knew he was going to come from far away,” Bardet analyzed on Eurosport.
“From there, he did 80% of the work, but in his wheel it was terrible, you felt like you were facing the wind. I suffered, I was cramping at the end. I was at the end of the line so I have nothing to regret,” he added.
In tears at the finish, Evenepoel, 23, finally finished more than 8 minutes ahead of the red jersey group at the top of Puerto de Belagua. The time trial world champion also went for the best climber’s jersey in this stage between France and Spain which included two non-category climbs.