Vuelta a España stage 10: Remco Evenepoel blitzes his rivals with dominant TT win

Remco Evenepoel (Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl) made his biggest deposit on the red jersey as he blasted to victory in the time trial on stage 10 of the Vuelta a España, beating his nearest rival by almost a minute.

Primož Roglič (Jumbo-Visma) was the next best rider. The Slovenian finished some 48 seconds behind Evenepoel while Remi Cavagna (Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl) was third and a minute slower than the Belgian.

Evenepoel was 36 seconds up on his teammate Cavagna at the second intermediate time check and continued to add time to his buffer over the second half of the course. Roglič gained time on Cavagna following the second check, having been a second slower than the Frenchman, but he gave away an extra 11 seconds on Evenepoel on the way to the line.

Roglič now moves into second overall but Evenepoel drastically extended his advantage in the GC and he now takes a 2:41 lead into stage 11. Enric Mas (Movistar), who started the day in second place, limited his losses as much as possible but dropped down to third after giving away 1:51 to Evenepoel in the TT.

“That’s a big surprise,” Evenepoel said when he was told of the 48-second margin of victory. “I saw that my teammate Remi did very well and, actually, it was perfect that he did such a good time trial for me to know the good times. When I was still sitting on the bus, I could see that everybody was actually slowing down in the second part compared to his time.

“I knew I just had to push one power all the time because it was flat with a super hard finish. My legs were so heavy on this last bump, it was really hard, but it was super nice to win this time trial in the red jersey. It’s an amazing feeling.

“I’m just so happy to take a stage win. I think I achieved what I came to do and now we’re going to fight and try to win this Vuelta. The pressure is off, I won a stage, so now the whole team is super confident. Everyone is performing so well, now we just need to fight to keep this jersey and take it home to Wevelgem.”

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How it happened

After the second rest day of the race, the Vuelta ramped up again with an almost pan-flat time trial test from Elche to Alicante. The 31.1km effort was going to be a defining moment in the fight for the red jersey. With nary a climb to be seen along the way, it was one for the true time trialists.

There would be a massive eight non-starters with the vast majority, including Sam Bennett and Ethan Hayter, pulling out due to a positive COVID-19 test. It brought the number of coronavirus positives during the race so far to 15.

As the early starters rolled through the finish line, the quickest time changed regularly. It wasn’t until Cavagna hit the course around 45 minutes into proceedings that a benchmark would be set.

The Frenchman blasted around the course almost a minute quicker than anyone else, beating the previous best time set by Alex Kirsch (Trek-Segafredo) by 52 seconds. Even as the likes of Rohan Dennis and Fred Wright completed their runs, Cavagna was comfortable in the hotseat.

Of the non-GC riders, U.S. time trial champion Lawson Craddock was the man that pushed him closest, setting the second quickest time as he crossed the line 37 seconds down on Cavagna. He would eventually finish in sixth.

It soon became clear that Cavagna’s biggest threat would come much later on as the final riders rolled through.

Putting in an impressive performance, though not troubling the top of the time sheets, was Miguel Ángel López (Astana-Qazaqstan). The Colombian caught Jai Hindley (Bora-Hansgrohe) in the final corners, despite starting two minutes behind the Giro d’Italia champion. He ultimately lost 1:47 on Evenepoel but placed himself well within the other GC contenders.

Ineos Grenadiers had a good day with Carlos Rodriguez leading the way with his fourth-placed finish. The Spaniard gave away 1:22 on Evenepoel but gained time on most others and closed in on the podium. Pavel Sivakov was just five seconds back with Tao Geoghegan Hart an extra 19 seconds back.

João Almeida would have started the day looking to gain time on many of his rivals, but the UAE Team Emirates rider lost time after a mistake in the final meters of the race. Almeida mistakenly took the deviation road for the race vehicles and had to slow and turn around before he could get back onto the course.

He lost 2:13 and his teammate Juan Ayuso lost a further four seconds, allowing Simon Yates (BikeExchange-Jayco) to jump ahead of him in the GC.

The biggest contest of the day was between Roglič and Evenepoel, who started four minutes apart. Roglič set off first and went through the opening time check on the same time as Cavagna. Any hopes that he may have had of winning the stage were quickly squashed as Evenepoel stormed through the intermediate check at 21 seconds up.

That gap extended to 36 seconds by the second check and ballooned to 48 over Roglič by the line.

The general classification battle will take a back seat as the sprinters take center stage for Wednesday’s ride from ElPozo Alimentación to Cabo de Gata. The GC contenders will have to wait until Thursday to have another go at each other as the peloton tries to figure out how to crack Evenepoel.

Final kilometer