The primary massive climbing take a look at of the season for Remco Evenepoel got here on stage 5 of Volta a Catalunya, which concluded atop Coll de Pal. Whereas he did not get the excessive marks that may have been anticipated, the Belgian rider was not apprehensive about his type.
Whereas Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) sailed previous him on the ultimate climb of the day, and within the GC standings as nicely, Evenepoel was not overly involved, acknowledging that it was staff success to have one other climber to divide and conquer when mandatory.
The Purple Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe rider completed sixth on Friday and conceded time within the GC standings, dropping to sixth place. His teammate Florian Lipowitz, nevertheless, completed fourth on the stage and is 4 seconds off the general podium.
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“Lipo’ was on the entrance, so it wasn’t as much as me to chase,” Evenepoel stated after the race to Sporza. “There wasn’t nice cooperation in our group, with riders taking turns attacking; in any other case, we’d have ridden in direction of the group forward of us. However for us, that state of affairs was OK: there have been simply the 2 of us.
“Sure, for me it is all OK, too. It is a completely different feeling to journey with one other sturdy climber. Then we are able to divide the duties a bit and use one another. I used to be capable of look forward to my dash due to him; he did not need to journey on the entrance as a result of I adopted.”
Assaults flew as soon as the peloton had cleared the primary 4 of 5 categorised climbs on the 153.1km route, with the best part of the ultimate 17km ascent to La Molina trimmed by 2.2km due to excessive winds. Giulio Ciccone (Lidl-Trek) tried to go clear as the ultimate climb approached, however he was overtaken midway.
A gaggle led by Mikel Landa (Soudal-QuickStep), Felix Gall (Decathlon CMA CGM), Lenny Martinez (Bahrain Victorious), Florian Lipowitz (Purple Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) and Afonso Eulalio (Bahrain Victorious) then attacked. Additional up the climb, Vingegaard and Evenepoel had been adopted by Valentin Paret-Peintre (Soudal-QuickStep) and 6 others, in a surge and caught the Gall group.
Evenepoel could not reply to an acceleration by the Dane, now below 7km to race, and he switched roles with teammate Lipowitz on the ultimate a part of the climb.
“Jonas Vingegaard’s assault was very arduous. It was very tough to observe him,” Evenepoel informed Belgian media outlet Nieuwsblad. “As soon as the teams had shaped after that, I did not undergo an excessive amount of for just a few kilometres. So possibly there was extra in it for me as we speak, however for our staff, this can be a good end result.”
Evenepoel crashed on Wednesday within the remaining kilometre on stage 3, however slotted into second general, whereas Vingegaard moved into the highest 10 that day. Two days later, Vingegaard would climb into the lead, 57 seconds over Gall, with the mountain victory.
What to learn subsequent
Purple Bull could have seen Evenepoel drop a number of spots within the general, however Lipowitz was in fourth place, up 20 spots, and simply 4 seconds from a podium with two days to go.
“The sensation wasn’t super-super, however I’ve felt worse two days after a fall. My neck and again muscle tissues had been nonetheless stiff, and my hand remains to be a bit open. That is annoying, but it surely will not cease me from racing arduous,” Evenepoel informed Sporza.
“The sensation is already higher than a month in the past, so there is no such thing as a motive to panic. Quite the opposite, now I need to continue to grow step-by-step, so it will likely be tremendous, proper?
“Tomorrow is straight away a totally completely different stage as nicely, with shorter climbs. It’s roughly the identical course as in 2024, when Pogačar received, again then it was additionally fully cut up aside. So it will likely be a little bit of a mini-classic with many assaults, so there are positively alternatives there.”
