Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-QuickStep) said before stage 1 of the Volta ao Algarve that his main mission on a day seemingly made for a bunch sprint was not to lose time needlessly. But through no fault of his own, at one point failing to achieve that goal came a lot closer than he would have liked.
A major crash with around 30 kilometres to go saw half the peloton blocked behind the fallers, with Soudal-QuickStep first-year pro Warre Vangheluwe amongst the fallers, and Evenepoel was only just able to get past.
After that, despite a few more falls late on which split the bunch, Evenepoel came through unscathed, protected by teammates Mattia Cattaneo and Louis Vervaecke.
“There was a crash and I just could escape it by a hair, let’s say, I think for us, so job done today,” Evenepoel told reporters afterwards.
“I will try to recover well because tomorrow [Thursday]” - finishing on the Alto da Foia, where Evenepoel took a breakthrough first summit finish win in 2020 - “is going to be a big day.”
The finale, Evenepoel said, had been nervous as there were a number of roundabouts. There were points when he was on or close to the front, he could be seen indicating with his hands to help guide the bunch safely round any potentially dangerous road furniture. The bunch, in any case, slowed notably after the fall, indirectly letting key riders who had been delayed, like Wout van Aert (Visma-Lease A Bike), regain contact prior to recovering speed in the closing five kilometres.
“It was nothing special, I was not really acting as a leader of the peloton, it is just if the road narrows, we all do this,” Evenepoel said to explain his actions. “You can’t see that from behind in the peloton. At the most important moments my team was in front and we avoided the problems.”
Evenepoel called on Algarve race marshals signalling potential obstacles to be better positioned at certain places, but also said that the event, with a lot of strong sprinters, was in any case a very different challenge to his opening Portuguese race at Saturday, the Figuera Champion Classic.
“The level is high, there are a lot of guys with experience here from the Tour, and you notice it at the end. Things get nervous and everybody is fighting for positions.”
At three kilometres to go, Soudal-QuickStep fell back in the bunch, with Evenepoel reasoning that “there was no need to keep going and it was quite hectic”. However, Evenepoel’s squad did not ease up completely, as he also argued that being too far back “is also too dangerous. The fall happened to the riders in 20th or 30th place, crashes can happen everywhere.”
In any case, for all there were fraught moments, stage 1’s mission was accomplished for Evenepoel and Thursday’s ascent of the Alto da Foia will bring back some better memories for him.
“It’s a nice finish, more or less the same approach as when I won it the first time, so that’s something that motivates me,” he said, before warning, “The run-up to the final climb is quite hard, and there could be rain, so it will be hectic again.”
