Remco Evenepoel had anything but an easy ride to a record-equalling third victory in the Volta ao Algarve on Sunday after a mechanical issue meant the Belgian was forced to tackle the final ascent of the race, the short but steep Alto de Malhao, on his big chainring.
Despite his setback, the Belgian could still claim an impressive second on the mountain-top finish, losing for a second straight time in three days in a summit sprint duel to Colombia’s Dani Martínez (Bora-Hansgrohe).
Evenepoel's challenging ascent of the Malhao - which inflicts consistent gradients above 10% and a steepest incline of nearly 15% - was far from being his only headache on stage 5. The climb was preceded by a dangerous long-range attack by GC threats Wout van Aert (Visma-Lease A Bike) and Ben Healy (EF Education-First) along with Gijs Leemreize (Team dsm-firmenich-PostNL)
After a long and furious chase, the trio were reeled in at the foot of the Malhao, and even if the stage win ultimately eluded Evenepoel, he ended the 2024 Volta ao Algarve as the first foreigner to conquer the race three times, and with his season off to the most promising of starts.
“This win means a lot to me. It is a very nice race and the level is certainly high this year," Evenepoel told reporters afterwards, “particularly when you see how hard the Bora-Hansgrohe team, and especially Martínez, were racing here."
Dedicating his win, half-good humouredly, to Portuguese football star Cristiano Ronaldo, he added “It’s a very nice feeling to come here and have a successful week and return home with three victories and two second places.”
“I am one of the few top riders here at the start who hasn’t yet been to altitude and I still won. That's not bad and there is still room for improvement.”
Regarding Van Aert and Healy’s long-range attack, Evenepoel’s team were clearly forced onto the defensive. But if James Knox and Mattia Cattaneo had been singled out for praise by the Belgian on the Alto do Foia stage, this time round Evenepoel highlighted the hard work by new recruit Mikel Landa, along with his other teammates like Cattaneo, that brought the race back under control
“An experienced man like Mikel proved invaluable;” he said. “It’s just too bad I couldn't finish off the job today.”
“Two years ago I came fifth on this climb, now I’ve finished second. I would have really liked to win here and I had the feeling that I was the strongest.”
“But with three out of three wins in the Algarve overall, and with three victories in nine days [including his win at the Figuera Champions Classic] I must certainly be satisfied.”
Van Aert’s rampaging attack, bridging across to a break of 20 riders, certainly set the cat amongst the pigeons and made for a thrilling stage, but Evenepoel argued it had not been as dangerous as perhaps it appeared.
“It was still a long way out, particularly with all those steep climbs. Congratulations to Wout for trying, he made the race hard and broke it open early," he said.
“But we handled it well and remained calm. I think that you could see it on television. We had to sacrifice a lot of the guys because of the chase that was earlier than we expected, but we showed how strong we are mentally in this team. We never panic under any circumstances, and particularly with the kind of situation that Wout created now.”
No sooner had Evenepoel and Soudal-QuickStep put out one fire by reeling in Van Aert and Healy on the lower slopes of the Malhao, than they faced another in the shape of the big ring issue. But by then at least, the battle was not so much for the overall as for the stage win.
“I had to do it in my 54-tooth chainring, in the final my chain could no longer fit on the inner ring,” Evenepoel explained.
“I had to do the entire climb on the big ring, even though I prefer to climb on a high cadence. That cost me the energy that I needed in the sprint, it killed my legs a bit.”
“It's a shame because doing a climb that goes close to 20 per cent was pretty difficult, and I think I could definitely have won," he said. "But that’s life, worse things can happen and I am of course very happy with the final overall win.”
