Opinion: Courageous Remco Evenepoel staring down the barrel of defeat to Primoz Roglic in La Vuelta

They say that form is temporary but class is permanent. And this was very much on display across the board during Saturday’s captivating showdown on La Pandera in La Vuelta.

Take Richard Carapaz (Ineos Grenadiers), for instance. The Olympic champion entered this race in poor form but proved his class once again to take his second win in three days – this time producing the goods while the battle for red played out in his wake and threatened to steal his thunder.

Ecuador’s Olympic champion Carapaz is way too good a rider to be moping around outside the top 15 of a Grand Tour. But he has shown what a strong and canny bike rider he is these past few days – reigniting his race on Thursday with a win on Penas Blancas, dropping a few minutes back the next day to conserve his energy, then delivering the goods once again on Saturday.

Victory also puts Carapaz very much in the frame for the polka dot jersey – and the momentum is certainly in his favour to pip Jay Vine to a stage hat-trick that would also seize the KOM crown from the Australian’s head.

But enough of the subplots to this Vuelta. What of the main event – the battle for red? A battle which looked a bit stale, in all fairness, until Remco Evenepoel’s (Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl) crash two days ago. If the Belgian didn’t appear to show any after-effects of his tumble on Friday, he certainly felt the pinch one day later.

Evenepoel’s class is impeachable. Ever since he burst onto the scene he’s been winning bike races and doing so with vim and vigour. His form in this Vuelta has also been strong from the outset. Not only had he proved his doubters wrong by sticking with the best on the double-digit gradients of the Collau Fancuaya and Les Praeres, he capped his strong performance in red last weekend with a time trial win in Alicante that consigned Primoz Roglic (Jumbo-Visma) to his first ever TT defeat on Spanish soil.

Ten years Evenepoel’s senior, Roglic has the palmares to show his own class. But his recent crash in the Tour meant he entered this Vuelta with a question mark over his form. The answers soon came when his Stage 4 victory at Laguardia confirmed he had the legs and put him back in the red jersey he has won for the last three editions.

Yet to drop below fifth place in the general classification, Roglic may have conceded the red jersey and he may have lost that TT, but his form could not be described as bad; it’s just Evenepoel’s has been that much better, therefore casting all others in his shadow.

Well, on La Pandera Evenepoel finally showed his human side. Two days after a crash which could have been a blip or the first chinks in his red armour, Evenepoel hit the wall for the first time in his debut Vuelta. It was a sign of his strength and mental fortitude that he did not lose the red jersey in Stage 14 – because when Roglic rode clear with Enric Mas (Movistar) and Miguel Lopez (Astana Qazaqstan) in pursuit, the Belgian looked on the cusp of implosion.

But he battled on to fight another day – another day which he will still begin with the luxury of lead of almost two minutes at the top of the standings. And yet the foundations appear to be wobbling. It was at this point in his debut Giro where Evenepoel started to feel the pinch. Could history be about to repeat itself?

A monster in week-long stage races, Evenepoel’s ability to replicate this over three weeks remains unknown. If evidence suggests that he can’t do so then that evidence is only gleaned from one previous attempt. But with his wobble on Saturday – plus those lingering doubts over his capacity to ride tall in the saddle at high-altitude – it’s very much sink or swim time for Evenepoel.

With little uphill support from his Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl team available following the withdrawals of Julian Alaphilippe and Pieter Serry, and with Sunday’s queen stage culminating on the highest peak of the race in the Sierra Nevada, Evenepoel’s reign in red may not enter an eleventh day. He has the class to ensure that he goes into the third week in red – but does he still have the form?

Roglic, on the other hand, is coming to the boil nicely. He also has Austalian mountain lieutenants Chris Harper and Rohan Dennis at his disposal, firing on all cylinders. He's won this race three times before and it would now take a brave man to bet against him winning it for a historic fourth consecutive occasion.

Whatever happens, Evenepoel's class is not in doubt. Tomorrow, though, we will discover what his form is like when riding to 2,510 metres with the momentum on the side of his rival Roglic. The Alto Hoya de la Mora awaits ahead of that famous third week of racing which Evenepoel has yet to master. Let the games begin…

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