Remco Evenepoel admitted that he made a minor miscalculation in the final three-way sprint, which decided the 2023 Volta a Catalunya’s first mountain top finish at Vallter, but argued the way he made the running in the finale was his most important takeaway of the day.
After his series of surging late attacks helped whittle down the front group to just three riders, himself, race leader Primož Roglič (Jumbo-Visma) and stage winner Giulio Ciccone (Trek-Segafredo), Evenepoel said his progress in the high mountains was notable.
He even argued that despite taking third, when contrasted with his previous experiences racing at altitude in the Vuelta a España’s toughest stage to Sierra Nevada last year - which, like Vallter, also finished well above 2,000 metres - he was now racing at another level.
Evenepoel admitted he had done too much work in the closing kilometres, enabling the other two to profit from his slipstream and then come around him at the end and that he had paid a price for that in the final result on the stage. But globally, his first incursion into the mountains at the Volta, he claimed, boded well for the rest of the week in Catalunya and the Giro d’Italia.
“If I compare with the Sierra Nevada and the Tour de Suisse last year, then I have taken three steps forward in this kind of work,” Evenepoel told Flemish newspaper Het Laatste Nieuws.
“I am satisfied. I made two good attacks myself, but maybe I put too much hay on my fork in the last part. I started my sprint too early, maybe I should have done that differently.”
Evenepoel told reporters pre-race that he sees the 2023 Volta a Catalunya as “the perfect test” for the final week of the Giro d’Italia. And after claiming third in Vallter and strengthening his second place overall behind Roglic, there was certainly no change of opinion there.
Evenepoel pointed out that he had never attacked like that at altitude, either, meaning this was “a good sign this week and towards the Giro as well."
“I had a very good feeling even when Bahrain put down a hard pace in the steepest part of the gradients," he added.
Although Roglič and Evenepoel have both finished in the top three on the first two stages, Evenepoel pointed out to reporters that Ciccone was a rider, currently tied on time with the Belgian, to watch for the overall battle as well.
“I think the three best finished ahead today. Ciccone won and took ten seconds [as a time bonus], so he’s getting closer and looks to be going very well too.
“I don’t know who was the best, I did most of the work in the last kilometres. But tomorrow is another summit finish, so we’ll try and go for it again.”
