Historical past repeated itself for Remco Evenepoel on Sunday as for the second time in 24 hours, the Belgian crossed the end line in a Tour de France Pyrenean stage in third place. But once more he had been distanced by prime two GC favourites Tadej Pogačar and Jonas Vingegaard — however but once more, all the best way as much as the day’s summit end, Evenepoel had by no means seemed to be in bother. And with every upward pedal stroke, his podium place within the general rankings regarded more and more safe, too.
Beforehand three and a half minutes forward of fourth-placed João Almeida (UAE Workforce Emirates) after stage 15’s newest main mountain check, Evenepoel has now elevated his benefit over the Portuguese racer by 5 minutes. And to spherical off an important day for Soudal-QuickStep, Remco’s key climbing lieutenant Mikel Landa completed fourth on the stage and has now moved into the highest 5 on GC.
“I attempted to comply with for some time and if Jonas [Vingegaard] dropped his tempo, I might come again,” Evenepoel instructed Sporza whereas he waited to obtain his newest white jersey of Greatest Younger Rider classification chief, which he now leads by a substantial margin of over six minutes on Carlos Rodriguez (Ineos Rodriguez).
“However afterwards, I selected to go at my very own tempo and never danger going over the restrict. It was solely when Tadej attacked that the time gaps actually opened up,” he stated, with Evenepoel ending 2:51 down on Pogačar and 1:43 down on Vingegaard.
Evenepoel remained upbeat however cautious about his possibilities of staying on the provisional Tour de France podium, saying merely “It’s all about retaining your toes on the bottom and retaining working.”
“I believe I did properly. Twice third within the Pyrenees – that is definitely not a dangerous end result.”
“Proper now Remco is simply dropping to 2 former Tour de France winners in what’s his first-ever Tour participation, so he is doing properly,” Soudal-QuickStep director Tom Steels added.
“There’’s nonetheless every week to go, after all, however I believe if he can keep wholesome, we’re very near getting on the rostrum.”
