Cold-hearted and hot-blooded. Remco Evenepoel did not move throughout the climb to Arinsal. Crouching down, he let the rest of the favorites show his cards. The Belgian champion did not wear out in the fireworks. He did not enter the rag when Ayuso attacked. The young Spaniard was followed by the three Jumbos like a spring. But Evenepoel did not get nervous, controlling the situation without ruffling too much. Until they entered the fenced area and he already gained positions to launch the sprint. His speed tip did not find an answer and it helped him to win and to be the leader. In that, the winner of the 2022 Vuelta resembles Pogacar, Vingegaard's great rival. The Dane, second, seems to be living a déjà vu from a month and a half ago.
Evenepoel is already in red. A jersey that cost him a trail of blood on his face. With the inertia of the sprint, he was unable to brake after crossing the finish line and collided with an assistant who was waiting for the cyclists. In the fall, the Soudal cyclist hit his eyebrow on his sunglasses and his eyebrow split open. A war wound for a warrior cyclist, who is looking for his second Tour.
The Belgian hopes that with the victory, the third added to the two last year in Alicante and the Alto del Piornal, he will change the luck of an edition in which so far nothing is coming out for him. He was very angry at the poor visibility on Saturday in the Barcelona time trial, which hurt him and left him 6s from winning, on Sunday he helped the Jumbo stop Alpecin and DSM after Roglic's fall, and now when he did wins, he ends up having an accident, more spectacular than painful, because he soon got up and was able to get on the podium.
“There was a curve 50 meters after the finish. Again, it's a security issue. It's not normal... It's touching my balls a bit, ”he said, about his little jinx, hot, the new leader of the race.
Accustomed to exhibitions, from Liège to San Sebastián, the air against him on the climb to Arinsal advises Evenepoel to be cautious, to control his fire, the one that burns after a wrong start. He knows how to wait. And patience takes him to the lead –which the Italian Piccolo could not defend– already on the third day. Last year he wore the red jersey from the sixth day to Madrid. In the Giro, which he had to abandon in pink due to the covid, the Belgian's strategy was different, he preferred to give up the jersey to avoid so much wear and tear.
Its styling is different from that of the Jumbo-Visma. The Dutch team can't help it, they have the soul of a boss. He likes to command, to take justice into his own hands. They know they have influence and they don't mind showing it to the rest. Vingegaard did it in Mataró on Sunday when he was meeting with several leaders of other teams, looking for allies and weaving support to face the organization. And on the way to Andorra, when Kämna and Caruso, among others, had taken 5 minutes with the breakaway, the yellows began to shoot with Van Baarle. Serious thing. Manu militari demonstration.
The same one that they teach when Ayuso launches the attack with 3 km to go. The youngster from the UAE lost 37s in Barcelona and wants to make up time. But the Jumbo don't let him go even a meter. At his wheel come Vingegaard, Roglic and even Kuss, who are given the freedom to try to win at his house. As if they were all his puppets.
Also close to home is Enric Mas, who looks agile, as always in the Vuelta, where he has been second three times, a position he already occupies after almost two months without competing due to the fall of the Tour. “We came out of these three days well off and reinforced. We had a great time on the first day, we didn't crash on Sunday and today our legs have responded”, points out the Spaniard, who does not have the punch of Evenepoel to beat Vingegaard, as if he were Pogacar.
