'Primoz Roglic in trouble!' – Watch moment Remco Evenepoel cracks Jumbo star in 'biblical' rain at La Vuelta
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Updated 25/08/2022 at 18:05 GMT
Jumbo-Visma got a taste of their own medicine from the 2022 Tour de France, when Jonas Vingegaard and Primoz Roglic combined to crack Tadej Pogacar, when Julian Alaphilippe teed up an attack from Remco Evenepoel to hurt Roglic on Stage 6 at La Vuelta. Evenepoel grabbed the red jersey after finishing second behind Jay Vine on Stage 6, with the Belgian sensation now the man to stop in Spain.
‘Wow!’ – Watch the moment Evenepoel cracks Roglic in ‘biblical’ rain
Remco Evenepoel (Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl) cracked Primoz Roglic (Jumbo-Visma) and a host of GC favourites to grab the red jersey at La Vuelta in a wet and wild finale to Stage 6.
After being teed up by team-mate Julian Alaphilippe, Evenepoel hit the front of a fast-evaporating peloton with 8km remaining – quickly forming a four-strong select group with Roglic, Enric Mas (Movistar) and Pavel Sivakov (Ineos Grenadiers).
A kilometre later and four had become two. Only Mas could hold on as Evenepoel turned the pace, with the pair opening up a gap on those behind and setting off in pursuit of two escapees up the road.
“A little bit of a gap here,” cried Carlton Kirby on Eurosport commentary.
“Evenepoel wants to know about it. What’s going on is he’s going up this mountain and he’s finding space here!”
Evenepoel, with Mas as a passenger on his back wheel, continued to pull clear as he pursued lone leader Jay Vine (Alpecin-Deceuninck), who had just cruelly overhauled Ukrainian escapee Mark Padun (EF Education–EasyPost).
“He’s seen that Roglic is in trouble,” said Robbie McEwen.
“Quick look over his shoulder and you saw that intensity go up, the cadence increased for Remco Evenepoel.
“This is a difficult moment for Roglic. Evenepoel not with a big acceleration, he’s just gradually turned the screw as he’s wound up the pace.”
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Vine claims first pro win – although can you spot him in gloomy haze?
As the rain hammered down on the race’s first summit finish, Kirby likened the unfolding events to Noah’s Ark.
“Wow. In the great storm they came in two by twos, it’s going to be Padun and Vine, it’s going to be Mas and Evenepoel. It’s biblical,” he said.
Behind, Roglic had formed a survival group with the likes of Jai Hindley (Bora-Hansgrohe) and Simon Yates (BikeExchange-Jayco) as the expected GC big-hitters struggled to match Evenepoel’s searing pace.
“Evenepoel is really putting on the pressure here,” said 1988 Vuelta champion Sean Kelly.
“He doesn’t give that big acceleration, he just slowly ups the pace a bit and puts riders in difficulty. He’s put a lot of big names in difficulty further down this mountain. They’ve just been spat all over the mountain.”
Although Evenepoel was unable to overhaul Vine, who toasted his first professional victory on the road after making his name on Zwift, he came home in second – 1’22” clear of the Roglic group to grab the red jersey from Rudy Molard (Groupama-FDJ).
Evenepoel leads the general classification by 21 seconds from Molard, with Mas into third at 28”. Roglic is fourth at 1’01”.
Still, it could have been worse for the Slovenian.
Ineos Grenadiers hopeful and 2019 Giro d’Italia champion Richard Carapaz finished almost three minutes down on Vine, while Mikel Landa (Bahrain Victorious) leaked over six minutes.
The Vuelta continues on Friday with an unusual day featuring a solitary climb – a Cat. 1 whopper – before a long descent to the finish.
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