Paris-Nice: Evenepoel continues to make inroads in the GC

Paris-Nice: Evenepoel continues to make inroads in the GC

Remco Evenepoel sits just 36 seconds from the yellow jersey with just one day to go at the “Race to The Sun” after cutting his deficit to half on the modified stage seven. Due to the snow, the peloton tackled Madone d’Utelle instead of the much harder Auron climb, but the 24-year-old managed to make up ground thanks to a solid ride and a fantastic team effort on a wet and cold day.

Soudal Quick-Step took control of the peloton some 40 kilometers into the stage, setting a brisk tempo and guiding Evenepoel on the treacherous descents, while eating into the escapees’ advantage. The last of these men was caught on the early slopes of the 15.3km climb, where Remco had Mattia Cattaneo, Louis Vervaeke and Ilan Van Wilder with him, their effort splitting the field and leaving only 15 riders in the lead group.

The Belgian Champion made his first move with four and a half kilometers remaining, prompting a response from the others, before making another move, this time just two kilometers from the finish. In the meantime, Aleksandr Vlasov (Bora-hansgrohe) had managed to break away, getting a 20-second gap over the chasers, a margin which proved to be decisive.

Evenepoel put in another solid effort in the group, leading a strong charge behind, and later he even had something left to sprint at the finish, taking second atop Madone d’Utelle, which returned to Paris-Nice after eight years. The result moved Remco up to fourth in the ranking with one stage remaining, keeping alive his hopes of finishing the prestigious French race in the top three overall.

It wasn’t easy with the cold and wet roads we had from the start, but I relied on an amazing team, incredibly committed from the beginning of this short but fast stage.

“They paced in the valley going into the final climb, where Louis set a pretty hard pace from the bottom. Then Ilan took over and I made a move with four or five kilometers to see what would happen. A couple of riders reacted, then Vlasov went and the others let him go. I attacked again inside the final two kilometers to go, and from there it was full gas to the line, where I took second after opening my sprint with 180 meters to go. It was a good day, we have one more stage, and the race is far from being over”, a confident Evenepoel said at the finish.

 

Photo credit: ©Alex Broadway / Getty Images

Race details

1 Aleksandr Vlasov
BORA - hansgrohe
2:44:03
2 Remco Evenepoel
Soudal Quick-Step
0:08
3 Primož Roglič
BORA - hansgrohe
0:08
4 Mattias Skjelmose Jensen
Lidl - Trek
0:08
5 Matteo Jorgenson
Team Visma | Lease a Bike
0:08
6 Santiago Buitrago Sánchez
Bahrain - Victorious
0:13
7 Brandon McNulty
UAE Team Emirates
0:27
8 Wilco Kelderman
Team Visma | Lease a Bike
0:31
9 Aurélien Paret-Peintre
Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale Team
0:36
10 Luke Plapp
Team Jayco AlUla
0:40
14 Ilan Van Wilder
Soudal Quick-Step
1:05
22 Louis Vervaeke
Soudal Quick-Step
3:46
42 Mattia Cattaneo
Soudal Quick-Step
12:27
87 Casper Pedersen
Soudal Quick-Step
16:58
106 Yves Lampaert
Soudal Quick-Step
21:01
117 Gianni Moscon
Soudal Quick-Step
22:46
1 Brandon McNulty
UAE Team Emirates
25:00:28
2 Matteo Jorgenson
Team Visma | Lease a Bike
0:04
3 Mattias Skjelmose Jensen
Lidl - Trek
0:35
4 Remco Evenepoel
Soudal Quick-Step
0:36
5 Luke Plapp
Team Jayco AlUla
0:47
6 Primož Roglič
BORA - hansgrohe
1:21
7 Egan Bernal Gómez
INEOS Grenadiers
1:42
8 Wilco Kelderman
Team Visma | Lease a Bike
1:43
9 Aurélien Paret-Peintre
Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale Team
1:53
10 Aleksandr Vlasov
BORA - hansgrohe
2:05
19 Ilan Van Wilder
Soudal Quick-Step
9:55
27 Louis Vervaeke
Soudal Quick-Step
15:51
33 Mattia Cattaneo
Soudal Quick-Step
35:10
67 Yves Lampaert
Soudal Quick-Step
55:39
76 Gianni Moscon
Soudal Quick-Step
57:50
94 Casper Pedersen
Soudal Quick-Step
1:03:43
1 Mads Pedersen
Lidl - Trek
60 pt
2 Laurence Pithie
Groupama - FDJ
56 pt
3 Mattias Skjelmose Jensen
Lidl - Trek
53 pt
4 Olav Kooij
Team Visma | Lease a Bike
50 pt
5 Remco Evenepoel
Soudal Quick-Step
48 pt
6 Danny van Poppel
BORA - hansgrohe
44 pt
7 Matteo Jorgenson
Team Visma | Lease a Bike
39 pt
8 Sam Bennett
Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale Team
32 pt
9 Madis Mihkels
Intermarché - Wanty
24 pt
10 Matteo Trentin
Tudor Pro Cycling Team
24 pt
23 Ilan Van Wilder
Soudal Quick-Step
6 pt
1 Mathieu Burgaudeau
TotalEnergies
44 pt
2 Christian Scaroni
Astana Qazaqstan Team
34 pt
3 Aleksandr Vlasov
BORA - hansgrohe
25 pt
4 Santiago Buitrago Sánchez
Bahrain - Victorious
24 pt
5 Remco Evenepoel
Soudal Quick-Step
24 pt
6 Jonas Rutsch
EF Education - EasyPost
13 pt
7 Matteo Jorgenson
Team Visma | Lease a Bike
12 pt
8 Luke Plapp
Team Jayco AlUla
11 pt
9 Primož Roglič
BORA - hansgrohe
10 pt
10 Mattias Skjelmose Jensen
Lidl - Trek
8 pt
1 Matteo Jorgenson
Team Visma | Lease a Bike
25:00:32
2 Mattias Skjelmose Jensen
Lidl - Trek
0:31
3 Remco Evenepoel
Soudal Quick-Step
0:32
4 Luke Plapp
Team Jayco AlUla
0:43
5 Santiago Buitrago Sánchez
Bahrain - Victorious
2:15
6 Ewen Costiou
7:05
7 Ilan Van Wilder
Soudal Quick-Step
9:51
8 Carlos Rodríguez Cano
INEOS Grenadiers
20:09
9 Jon Barrenetxea Golzarri
Movistar Team
42:38
10 Jordan Jegat
TotalEnergies
46:27
1 UAE Team Emirates 75:11:43
2 Team Visma | Lease a Bike 6:20
3 INEOS Grenadiers 10:25
4 Soudal Quick-Step 11:31
5 BORA - hansgrohe 17:05
6 Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale Team 33:04
7 Team Jayco AlUla 42:52
8 Bahrain - Victorious 46:35
9 Movistar Team 57:22
10 Lidl - Trek 1:02:27

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