Evenepoel closes in on Paris-Nice podium

Evenepoel closes in on Paris-Nice podium

Remco Evenepoel passed the first real test of this year’s “Race to the Sun”, which consisted of a hard up-and-down stage comprising seven classified climbs that came twenty-four hours after the demanding team time trial in Auxerre.

The day was a slow-burner until the penultimate ascent, a first-category one where the race exploded. Attacks came thick and fast, and the combination of big accelerations and steep gradients reducing the peloton to around twenty riders by the time the top was crested. Evenepoel had Ilan Van Wilder with him, and the Tre Valli Varesine winner quickly assumed pace-setting duties at the front of the depleted bunch, trying to claw back time.

Once his job was done, Remco decided to attack on the 3km-long Mont Brouilly – which returned at the race after seven years – further cutting the gap of Santiago Buitrago (Bahrain Victorious), who took the win. A searing acceleration helped the Belgian Champion gain time on all his opponents before concluding fourth, a strong result that came in addition to the important bonus seconds he scored in Durette, at the day’s sole intermediate sprint.

“I felt good today, and I’m happy with this and with the solid job the squad did today. Ilan was very strong, doing a long pull in the final kilometers, while the other guys helped me stay all the time in a good position”, explained Evenepoel who is fourth overall, 30 seconds behind the yellow jersey. “I’m happy I could take some time on the others today. It won’t be easy in the weekend, but we’ll continue to try and see what we can do.”

 

Photo credit: ©Alex Broadway / Getty Images

Race details

1 Santiago Buitrago Sánchez
Bahrain - Victorious
4:25:52
2 Luke Plapp
Team Jayco AlUla
0:10
3 Mattias Skjelmose Jensen
Lidl - Trek
0:37
4 Remco Evenepoel
Soudal Quick-Step
0:37
5 Egan Bernal Gómez
INEOS Grenadiers
0:39
6 Felix Gall
Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale Team
0:39
7 Primož Roglič
BORA - hansgrohe
0:39
8 Matteo Jorgenson
Team Visma | Lease a Bike
0:39
9 Harold Tejada Canacue
Astana Qazaqstan Team
0:43
10 Brandon McNulty
UAE Team Emirates
0:46
19 Ilan Van Wilder
Soudal Quick-Step
1:05
28 Louis Vervaeke
Soudal Quick-Step
3:09
36 Mattia Cattaneo
Soudal Quick-Step
8:13
59 Yves Lampaert
Soudal Quick-Step
16:59
60 Gianni Moscon
Soudal Quick-Step
16:59
79 Casper Pedersen
Soudal Quick-Step
19:17
1 Luke Plapp
Team Jayco AlUla
13:15:04
2 Santiago Buitrago Sánchez
Bahrain - Victorious
0:13
3 Brandon McNulty
UAE Team Emirates
0:27
4 João Almeida
UAE Team Emirates
0:29
5 Remco Evenepoel
Soudal Quick-Step
0:30
6 Egan Bernal Gómez
INEOS Grenadiers
0:40
7 Chris Harper
Team Jayco AlUla
0:46
8 Matteo Jorgenson
Team Visma | Lease a Bike
0:52
9 Rigoberto Urán Urán
EF Education - EasyPost
0:54
10 Carlos Rodríguez Cano
INEOS Grenadiers
1:02
14 Ilan Van Wilder
Soudal Quick-Step
1:08
33 Louis Vervaeke
Soudal Quick-Step
8:24
36 Mattia Cattaneo
Soudal Quick-Step
9:54
55 Yves Lampaert
Soudal Quick-Step
17:20
57 Gianni Moscon
Soudal Quick-Step
17:46
86 Casper Pedersen
Soudal Quick-Step
25:04
1 Laurence Pithie
Groupama - FDJ
46 pt
2 Mads Pedersen
Lidl - Trek
38 pt
3 Danny van Poppel
BORA - hansgrohe
28 pt
4 Olav Kooij
Team Visma | Lease a Bike
25 pt
5 Arvid de Kleijn
Tudor Pro Cycling Team
25 pt
6 Remco Evenepoel
Soudal Quick-Step
24 pt
7 Mattias Skjelmose Jensen
Lidl - Trek
24 pt
8 Dylan Groenewegen
Team Jayco AlUla
20 pt
9 Nils Eekhoff
Team dsm-firmenich PostNL
18 pt
10 Madis Mihkels
Intermarché - Wanty
16 pt
1 Mathieu Burgaudeau
TotalEnergies
28 pt
2 Christian Scaroni
Astana Qazaqstan Team
21 pt
3 Santiago Buitrago Sánchez
Bahrain - Victorious
20 pt
4 Jonas Rutsch
EF Education - EasyPost
13 pt
5 Luke Plapp
Team Jayco AlUla
11 pt
6 Remco Evenepoel
Soudal Quick-Step
8 pt
7 Aleksandr Vlasov
BORA - hansgrohe
5 pt
8 Bob Jungels
BORA - hansgrohe
5 pt
9 Stefan Bissegger
EF Education - EasyPost
5 pt
10 Primož Roglič
BORA - hansgrohe
4 pt
1 Luke Plapp
Team Jayco AlUla
13:15:04
2 Santiago Buitrago Sánchez
Bahrain - Victorious
0:13
3 Remco Evenepoel
Soudal Quick-Step
0:30
4 Matteo Jorgenson
Team Visma | Lease a Bike
0:52
5 Carlos Rodríguez Cano
INEOS Grenadiers
1:02
6 Ilan Van Wilder
Soudal Quick-Step
1:08
7 Mattias Skjelmose Jensen
Lidl - Trek
1:27
8 Ewen Costiou
2:00
9 Finn Fisher-Black
UAE Team Emirates
11:24
10 Laurence Pithie
Groupama - FDJ
12:13
1 INEOS Grenadiers 39:48:08
2 UAE Team Emirates 0:13
3 Soudal Quick-Step 2:22
4 Team Visma | Lease a Bike 2:35
5 BORA - hansgrohe 9:07
6 Bahrain - Victorious 11:04
7 Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale Team 13:41
8 Team Jayco AlUla 15:12
9 Movistar Team 19:26
10 Astana Qazaqstan Team 21:14

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