Best of the rest. Remco Evenepoel conceded ground on the Tour de France’s opening day in the Pyrenees, but the Belgian has formally revised his ambitions for the race upwards after his resolute display on the slopes of Pla d’Adet on stage 14.
Not for the first time in this race, Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) and Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease A Bike) were operating on an entirely different plane from everybody else in the closing kilometres. In his younger and more vulnerable years, Evenepoel might have been tempted into reaching out to touch the flame, but these days, he has developed the knack of meting out his effort sagely on ascents such as this.
Rather than try to follow Pogačar’s violent onslaught with 5km of the hors catégorie ascent remaining, Evenepoel delivered another measured effort, initially tracking Vingegaard before settling into a tempo that carried him to third place on the stage, 1:10 down.
Although Evenepoel drops to third overall, some 2:22 off Pogačar, his hold on a podium place looks ever tighter, given that he now holds a buffer of 3:39 over fourth-placed João Almeida. Having insisted a place in the top five was the summit of his ambition before the race began, Evenepoel can no longer deny that he has a podium place in Nice in his sights.
“Yes, I think that’s clear,” Evenepoel said in the mixed zone afterwards. “I’ve got four on fourth place, so it’s a nice advantage. But I’ve got to keep my feet on the ground, keep working, keep believing in my strength, in my legs. But I’m going to fight for this third place, that’s clear.”
Although Evenepoel won the Vuelta a España two years ago, he began his debut Tour insisting that he was not capable of competing with Pogačar for the yellow jersey. That might be true, for this year at least, but the 24-year-old has still impressed at every major rendezvous thus far.
When Pogačar and Vingegaard escaped on the San Luca on stage 2, he effectively closed the gap by himself on the run-in to the finish. He was, by a distance, the third best man on the Col du Galibier two days later and he also limited the damage sagely on the road to Le Lioran on stage 11. In between, he claimed victory in the time trial in the opening week.
Saturday’s entry into the Pyrenees marked a different kind of test, and the stage brought him over the Col du Tourmalet, where his hopes of defending his Vuelta title evaporated in dramatic fashion last September. The key portion of stage 14, however, came on the final haul up Pla d’Adet, where Pogačar soared clear with 5km remaining, with the front group fragmenting behind him.
“I’ve finished third on the stage, a good minute down on Tadej but only thirty seconds behind Jonas, so I have to be happy,” Evenepoel said. “I also took time on the rivals behind me, so I’m very happy.”
Along with Primož Roglič, Wout van Aert and Mathieu van der Poel, Evenepoel is regularly placed among the ‘Big Six’ of the contemporary peloton, men whose very presence in a race utterly changes its complexion. The Belgian conceded, however, Pogačar and Vingegaard are several rungs ahead of him, at least on this kind of terrain in this specific race.
“I know that Jonas and Tadej have more experience than me in the high mountains and they also have a bit more power than me,” Evenepoel said. “That means I have to try to follow them as long as possible. Today I tried to follow Jonas as much as I could but at the moment when there were attacks, I was a bit behind Matteo Jorgenson and Mikel Landa so I couldn’t respond directly.
“Maybe if I’d been quicker to Jonas’ wheel, I could have followed to the summit but that’s racing. I have to be happy with the result and hope I can do the same tomorrow.”
The Tour’s second stage in the Pyrenees offers a different sort of a test, with four category 1 ascents preceding the tough finale at Plateau de Beille. It is a day that will call more for endurance than explosiveness.
“We still have to get through tomorrow’s stage well and then we can rest again,” said Soudal-QuickStep directeur sportif Tom Steels. “We are getting closer and closer, the podium is definitely within our reach.”
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