Near the summit of the Alto do Fóia climb, a statue of Remco Evenepoel commemorates his 2020 breakthrough win on the Volta ao Algarve’s hardest ascent, his left arm punching the sky in a timeless reminder of his first-ever victory on a mountaintop end.
4 years on in the identical situation, as dense mist enshrouded the highest of the uncovered, treeless climb and a vicious Atlantic wind and occasional heavy rain bathe left race followers shivering, the Belgian couldn’t repeat his single-arm victory salute.
As an alternative, the Soudal-QuickStep rider needed to accept crossing the road in second place behind Dani Martínez (Bora-Hansgrohe), following a two-up dash duel with the Colombian and defending champion of the Volta ao Algarve.
However regardless of his defeat, as he talked to journalists whereas warming down, sheltered from the summit’s gale-force winds and chilly by the portico of a neighborhood craft store, Evenepoel singled out the a number of positives of the day. These ranged from a efficiency the place his staff made all of the working within the remaining 20 kilometres, and a second place total, 4 seconds behind Martínez.
It leaves him excellently positioned to bid for the highest spot within the weekend’s key levels, a time trial on Sunday and the ascent of the brief, sharp Alto de Malhao on Sunday.
“I’m pleased with second, I’m happy. The staff did quite a lot of actually good work,” he instructed journalists.
“With the headwind and this sturdy breakaway, all of it labored out a bit in a different way to how I’d imagined.” From that breakaway, the final survivor, longstanding 2023 Giro d’Italia Andreas Leknessund (Uno-X Mobility), was solely caught seven kilometres from the road.
“The strongest guys have been up there on the end, and the one error I made was launching my remaining dash too early, with 300 metres to go. However I needed to shock the opposite guys.
“However shedding only a few seconds of time bonus isn’t any disaster. The final two levels of the race are each excellent for me, and now I simply need to get by Friday’s stage so I’m nicely positioned for the weekend.”
Evenepoel paid tribute to how Martínez had performed out the end, placing him within the wind after ‘closing the door’ on him within the dash. “That wasn’t an issue, it was clever of him,” he stated.
“If I’d been on [teammate] Mikel’s [Landa] wheel moderately than on Sepp Kuss’, perhaps I’d have had a greater likelihood right this moment. However that’s the type of automatism Mikel goes to be taught, each for the final stage [also an uphill finish] and for the summer time.
“I had tried to place in a second acceleration, however Martínez is a little more explosive than I’m, significantly when it’s a slight uphill dash. I had the sensation that I used to be getting even nearer within the final metres, however he was simply stronger right this moment.”
If Landa was barely out of synch within the remaining sprint for the road, the Basque nonetheless was current precisely the place he wanted to be on the summit of the climb, in what’s his first ever stage race together with his new staff.
Lengthy-standing Soudal-QuickStep racers Mattia Cattaneo and James Knox have been additionally current within the crunch closing kilometres, with Knox specifically doing quite a lot of work on the Foia.
“Cattaneo and Knox did an incredible job,” Evenepoel recognised afterwards, “and we may see the staff is certainly working nicely.
“It is unhappy that we’re the one ones working all day after which not having the ability to end it off. However that is simply the way in which it’s, you’ll be able to’t win all the pieces. We’ve got to be content material with what we’ve got finished.”
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