Belgian tyro Remco Evenepoel on Thursday left his Vuelta a Espana title rivals trailing on a foggy climb in the Cantabrian mountains on a stage won by Australia’s Jay Vine of Alpecin-Deceuninck.
Stage six of 21 left Bilbao for a 181.2km run through the Picos de Europa where rain and fog curtailed any daredevil descending after a downhill pile up within an escape group gave the peloton a stark safety reminder.
The visibly thrilled Vine was an unexpected winner, and revealed that his team had carefully planned the attack.
Photo: AFP
“It was the team plan for me to attack on the final climb, it’s unreal,” the 26-year-old from Townsville said.
“This is for my wife,” he said, before quickly adding that he would be buying a Corvette for himself.
However, Evenepoel was the star of the day, on the first major skirmish between the title rivals.
Photo: AFP
Often billed as the new Eddy Merckx, Evenepoel led the overall standings by 21 seconds from overnight leader Rudy Molard, while Movistar’s Spanish rider Enric Mas was third at 28 seconds.
Evenepoel’s Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl teammate Julian Alaphilippe led the peloton both up and down the penultimate climb before unleashing his young charge on the final one.
A sustained acceleration from Evenepoel on the foggy slopes of Pico Jano dropped Simon Yates, Richard Carapaz and defending champion Primoz Roglic, but, with visibility limited to a few meters at the summit, he could not quite close the gap on Vine, who held on to win by 15 seconds.
“I’m really happy and proud. It’s a big dream coming true,” said Evenepoel, who was tipped for the top three years ago, but fell into a ravine in Italy.
“What I’m showing today is one of the best things I actually did on a bike. Uphill finish and putting in a strong performance thanks to the team is a dream come true. I hope we can keep it up,” he said.
Pre-race favorite Roglic of Jumbo-Visma finished the final 12.6km climb 1 minute, 22 seconds adrift of the 22-year-old Evenepoel, who also picked up bonus seconds.
“There’s still a long way to go, but today we lost a bit,” Roglic said. “[The others] go strong, but I didn’t need that proof. Quite difficult weather for the Vuelta.”
Three-time defending champion Roglic is fourth at 1 minute, 1 second, while Ineos Grenadiers pair Pavel Sivakov and Tao Geoghegan Hart are at 1 minute, 27 seconds back.
Carapaz had a poor day and has dropped to 2 minutes, 56 seconds off Evenepoel’s pace in a race he started as sole leader for Ineos Grenadiers.
Former Vuelta winner Yates now sits in ninth, but unlike Evenepoel and Roglic, could struggle to keep pace on a time trial such as Tuesday’s stage 10.
The 19-year-old Spanish hope Juan Ayuso of UAE Team Emirates had a day to remember as he climbed to fourth overall.
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