La Vuelta 2022: How Remco Evenepoel showed signs of discomfort as red jersey cracks for first time
:focal(145x121:147x119)/origin-imgresizer.eurosport.com/2022/07/15/3411067-69701524-310-310.jpg)
Updated 03/09/2022 at 17:20 GMT
Adam Blythe has noticed Remco Evenepoel (Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl) shows he’s in trouble when he looks down to a device on his bike which tells him his power output and how long is left of the stage. Blythe explained his observations on The Breakaway after a dramatic Stage 14. Stream La Vuelta live and on-demand on discovery+. You can also watch all the action live on eurosport.co.uk..
Did Evenepoel lose his head on Stage 14?
Adam Blythe has noticed Remco Evenepoel (Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl) shows he’s in trouble when he looks down to a device on his bike which tells him his power output and how long is left of the stage.
Evenepoel cracked for the first time at La Vuelta when Primoz Roglic (Jumbo-Visma) launched an attack on the summit finish at La Pandera, losing 52 seconds to the Slovenian who is now 1’49” behind in the general classification.
On The Breakaway, Blythe explained how Juan Ayuso (UAE Team Emirates) helped Evenepoel ride his way back into the stage to limit his losses.
“The way that he was able to get back into his rhythm, I think Ayuso coming back past him on a neutral service bike must not have been great for his morale on that,” said Blythe.
“I think just having that carrot there in front of you a little bit [helped]. I think he was completely isolated, he wouldn't have had a gauge to how quick he was going and I just noticed, up until right at the bottom of the climb, he was always playing with his computer.
“To me he’s either looking at the power or looking at the map seeing how long he’s got to go at certain points of the climb.
“But as soon as he's doing that, for me, when you're comfortable, you never look down and go, ‘Oh, this is hard’.
/origin-imgresizer.eurosport.com/2022/09/03/3445345-70292073-2560-1440.jpg)
Watch Roglic attack Evenepoel as red jersey cracks for first time at La Vuelta
“As soon as you start thinking it's hard, you want to know the numbers and especially Remco because I think he does ride on numbers.
“He started looking immediately like ‘How far have I got to go, how many watts am I doing?’This is a little bit hard for me’.
“So I think with him it’s in that initial point of cracking, but then Ayuso comes past him and he says ‘Alright, I can do this’.”
Another summit finish awaits the peloton on Sunday with an all category climb in Sierra Nevada, which should favour Roglic on paper.
Dan Lloyd says Evenepoel “became a champion” after showing maturity to maintain a big lead in the overall standings going into the final eight stages.
“We've seen it on a number of occasions this year in a Spanish race at the start of the year, Tirreno-Adriatico, Tour de Suisse, when he's either the best in the world, or he's just quite a long way off,” said Lloyd.
“Whereas the champions like Roglic they really limit their loss on days like today and I think actually Remco has become a champion in my eyes today just because the way that he ended up limiting his losses on the stage because initially it looked like this could be two or three minutes [lost]. He might even lose the red jersey today.
“So I hope that he takes a lot from that as well because I think if you told him at the start of this Vuelta that going into Stage 15 tomorrow into Sierra Nevada he would hold a 1’49” time gap on everybody else in the general classification, he would say ‘Wow, that sounds good. I'd sign on the dotted line for that.’
“It’s the way that it's gone though. There's a slight negative there now, ‘Am I going to crash more tomorrow? It’s slipping in the wrong direction’, but I personally take a lot from what he did today.”
- - -
Stream La Vuelta live and on-demand on discovery+You can also watch all the action live on eurosport.co.uk
Scan me
Related Topics
Share this article
Advertisement
Advertisement