The Belgian distances himself from all his rivals on the climb to Praeres, where Meintjes wins, Enric Mas resists and Roglic gives up for another minute
They say the climb to Praeres is four kilometers long with a 12.9% gradient. That’s a wall to leave to the nails. Actually, it’s even worse. Praeres is a quarter of an hour of torment. That takes the first one to arrive in the promised land of the target. With the taste of blood in the throat. With the mouth of a fish in the water. Remco Evenepoel, the leader, still has several tests to go: acclimating to the coming heat, endurance in a three-week race… That’s what they say. He’s 22 years old, student age, but he won’t stop teaching. In Praeres he showed that he dominates the violent slopes. One more step before the rest day and the time trial on Tuesday where he will drive the climbers away.
Child face. But not harmless. Sitting on the most vertical slopes. Open sweater. With wings. Evenepoel does not provide pedals. He crushes them, just like his rivals. He doesn’t look at them. Go up in the belief that everyone will bow to their strength. First Roglic gave up, then Ayuso and Carlos Rodríguez, and finally Enric Mas. No one resisted the leader when only pain remained on the slope. Evenepoel kept up his steamroller pace. He did not reach the escapee who would win the stage, the South African Louis Meintjes, but he did reach those who contest the Vuelta. Ayuso, aged 19, was the one who lost the least, 34 seconds. Enric Mas left 44, two less than Carlos Rodríguez, a 21-year-old long-distance runner who is already going to his Andalusian country. Roglic, unable to give up, lost 54 seconds. Beaten by Remco.
After the next rest day, the flat time trial in Alicante, made for Evenepoel, awaits. The Belgian takes it with 1.12 on Enric Mas and almost two minutes on Roglic. Then, two and a half minutes later, come the names of the future, of the present, of Spanish cycling. Carlos Rodríguez is fourth and is already the clear leader of Ineos. The British squad, who could choose from any fishing ground in the world, chose him when he was still young. And designed a path to the top. The Biscayan Xabier Artetxe is his coach and takes him by the hand. This Vuelta, confirms the technician, is the goal of the man from Granada in the campaign of his rise. It is already adapted to the category. Learn daily. “I prepped myself for the final climb and I paid for it. Well, if I make it to the podium, it will be a dream and if I burst, nothing will happen,” he said. Quiet ambition.
It’s already getting to be his time, just like Ayuso’s, even younger and fifth overall. The two are entering unknown territory. They’ve never played a three-week round. And they do that without complexes. “This is all a gift to me,” Ayuso warns. “I told my director I would be brave.” It was. It is. “I started 700 meters from the end to leave Mas and Carlos behind… Phew, the meters didn’t go by,” said the man from Alicante. Evenepoel, another precocious omen, marks the step for the ambassadors of the new Spanish cycling. At the moment, the two are following his trail. “Remco is quite superior”, Ayuso says, but… he smiles. sounds. He is aged.
As the covid avoided withdrawals every day, the riders started the ninth stage as if it were the last. From the flag in Villaviciosa, in the cider orchards, everyone squeezed to get the getaway car. The pack went mad through the Cliffs of Hell. Like escaping the devil. Until the door of the Torno, a hard gate, that escape was not satisfied. A cyclist with stripes stepped in, Thymen Arensman, eleventh in the general classification three minutes from Evenepoel. In a response that was difficult to understand, his team, the DSM, ordered him to stop and wait for the group when he had two minutes left. A bad decision by a director can ruin someone’s job.
The other escapees climbed Torno: Battistella, Zambanini, Van Baarle, Conca, Janssens, Stannard, Meintjes (generally the best placed, more than eight minutes away), Guglielmi and José Manuel Díaz Gallego, a 27-year-old emigrant from Jaén who won the 2016 Valenciaga Memorial. He was a cyclist in teams from Israel, Austria, France… and started this season in the Russian Gazprom, which has been banned from participating since the invasion of Ukraine. That’s why Díaz happened to arrive in Burgos in the spring and is now making his debut in the Vuelta. Beyond that, Evenepoel’s Quick Step had them do it by giving them five minutes. Without Arensman in that break, nothing worried the Belgian leader. He has to economise on his herd’s powers after Serry’s covid abandonment. One stool less.
The race headed toward El Fito, with the Sierra de las Coronas in sight. King’s crown or thorns? The final ascent to Praeres was commanded by the cast. At the entrance to that Asturian wall, twisting and winding its way downhill, Harper and Hart fell. Alaphilippe, a good tightrope walker, protected Evenepoel in that labyrinth. The world champion dropped him on the penalty spot, at the start of the four kilometers from the Praeres wall. Remco was a football player. He shot on target. While everyone seemed screwed to the brutal redoubts, the Belgian leader stuck pins with the escapees he caught. None of his rivals could do that much. He still has to pass courses in this Vuelta, but at the moment his grade is excellent. Best.
Source: La Verdad
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