Evenepoel moves into yellow after dominant ITT win

Evenepoel moves into yellow after dominant ITT win

Remco Evenepoel took his first victory as reigning Time Trial World Champion on the fourth day of the Portuguese race. The stage held around Albufeira was 22.2 kilometers in length and consisted of a couple of short but sharp climbs as well as some technical sections, the latter coming in the second part of the course, but none of these could slow down the Belgian from his quest to claim the win.

The penultimate rider to roll down the start ramp, Remco produced a flying ride from the opening kilometers, going quickest through the first checkpoint. The route was hillier than in the past years, but that didn’t seem to bother Evenepoel, who increased his lead by the time he arrived at the second split, which put him in firm control of the virtual general classification. The 24-year-old maintained the average speed close to 50km/h and concluded the ITT with the fastest time by a large margin – 27:09.

“I was very motivated for this time trial, the first of the year in my beautiful rainbow jersey. There were a lot of strong guys at the start, but I immediately found my rhythm on the bike and produced a solid ride. The fact that I finished ahead of all of them makes me really proud. It’s nice to already have two victories from five days of racing”, said Remco after his fourth stage success at the Volta ao Algarve.

Saturday’s victory propelled him to the top of the overall standings with just one stage to go, which will finish on the Alto do Malhão, and the new leader of the race – who has a nice cushion over his opponents – believes in his chances of retaining the yellow jersey: “We have a very strong team and we’ll try to defend our position. I think that this result and what we showed two days ago serve as confirmation that we are ready. I love Portugal and it would be great to take this jersey home.”

 

Photo credit: ©Dario Belingheri / Getty Images

Race details

1 Remco Evenepoel
Soudal Quick-Step
27:09
2 Magnus Sheffield
INEOS Grenadiers
0:16
3 Stefan Küng
Groupama - FDJ
0:29
4 Isaac del Toro Romero
UAE Team Emirates
0:37
5 Mattia Cattaneo
Soudal Quick-Step
0:46
6 Filippo Ganna
INEOS Grenadiers
0:47
7 Ben Healy
EF Education - EasyPost
0:48
8 Daniel Felipe Martínez Poveda
BORA - hansgrohe
0:51
9 Rune Herregodts
Intermarché - Wanty
0:58
10 Jan Tratnik
Team Visma | Lease a Bike
0:58
54 Mikel Landa Meana
Soudal Quick-Step
2:16
67 Louis Vervaeke
Soudal Quick-Step
2:35
80 Pieter Serry
Soudal Quick-Step
3:06
109 Warre Vangheluwe
Soudal Quick-Step
3:55
117 James Knox
Soudal Quick-Step
4:15
1 Remco Evenepoel
Soudal Quick-Step
14:50:24
2 Daniel Felipe Martínez Poveda
BORA - hansgrohe
0:47
3 Jan Tratnik
Team Visma | Lease a Bike
1:12
4 Wout van Aert
Team Visma | Lease a Bike
1:18
5 Stefan Küng
Groupama - FDJ
1:18
6 Ben Healy
EF Education - EasyPost
1:20
7 Thymen Arensman
INEOS Grenadiers
1:23
8 Magnus Sheffield
INEOS Grenadiers
1:34
9 António Morgado
UAE Team Emirates
1:39
10 Thomas Pidcock
INEOS Grenadiers
1:44
21 Mikel Landa Meana
Soudal Quick-Step
2:35
30 Mattia Cattaneo
Soudal Quick-Step
5:09
44 James Knox
Soudal Quick-Step
6:36
76 Louis Vervaeke
Soudal Quick-Step
12:58
102 Pieter Serry
Soudal Quick-Step
19:43
136 Warre Vangheluwe
Soudal Quick-Step
28:49
1 Gerben Thijssen
Intermarché - Wanty
38 pt
2 Wout van Aert
Team Visma | Lease a Bike
29 pt
3 Rui Oliveira
UAE Team Emirates
28 pt
4 Marius Mayrhofer
Tudor Pro Cycling Team
16 pt
5 Jordi Meeus
BORA - hansgrohe
16 pt
6 Daniel Felipe Martínez Poveda
BORA - hansgrohe
15 pt
7 Lars Boven
Alpecin - Deceuninck
13 pt
8 Remco Evenepoel
Soudal Quick-Step
12 pt
9 Jasper Stuyven
Lidl - Trek
12 pt
10 Sepp Kuss
Team Visma | Lease a Bike
10 pt
26 Mikel Landa Meana
Soudal Quick-Step
2 pt
27 James Knox
Soudal Quick-Step
2 pt
1 Daniel Felipe Martínez Poveda
BORA - hansgrohe
10 pt
2 German Nicolás Tivani Pérez
Aviludo - Louletano - Loulé Concelho
8 pt
3 Remco Evenepoel
Soudal Quick-Step
8 pt
4 Tomas Contte
Aviludo - Louletano - Loulé Concelho
7 pt
5 Andreas Leknessund
Uno-X Mobility
6 pt
6 Sepp Kuss
Team Visma | Lease a Bike
6 pt
7 Martin Urianstad Bugge
Uno-X Mobility
6 pt
8 Carlos Miguel Salgueiro
5 pt
9 Sergio Higuita García
BORA - hansgrohe
4 pt
10 Max Walker
Astana Qazaqstan Team
4 pt
14 James Knox
Soudal Quick-Step
2 pt
1 Magnus Sheffield
INEOS Grenadiers
14:51:58
2 António Morgado
UAE Team Emirates
0:05
3 Jan Christen
UAE Team Emirates
0:24
4 Isaac del Toro Romero
UAE Team Emirates
5:19
5 Jaume Guardeño Roma
Caja Rural - Seguros RGA
5:32
6 Enzo Paleni
Groupama - FDJ
6:52
7 Per Strand Hagenes
Team Visma | Lease a Bike
7:20
8 Mathias Vacek
Lidl - Trek
12:22
9 Pavel Bittner
Team dsm-firmenich PostNL
13:33
10 Alexandre Montez
Credibom / LA Alumínios / Marcos Car
21:02
1 INEOS Grenadiers 44:35:10
2 Team Visma | Lease a Bike 0:17
3 BORA - hansgrohe 0:49
4 UAE Team Emirates 1:43
5 Soudal Quick-Step 1:45
6 EF Education - EasyPost 3:17
7 Astana Qazaqstan Team 3:55
8 Lidl - Trek 6:36
9 Uno-X Mobility 8:46
10 Tudor Pro Cycling Team 10:11

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