'I decided to race' – Evenepoel storms to Valenciana win despite GC neutralisation

While some riders understandably opted to treat the stage as a day of active rest, Evenepoel flung himself into his effort. There was little surprise when he recorded the quickest time at the intermediate check and even less when he claimed stage victory by eight seconds from his Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe teammate Aleksandr Vlasov.

“There was still a stage win to grab and also I wanted to respect the organisation,” Evenepoel told Eurosport as he warmed down ahead of the podium ceremony in Alginet. “They decided to keep the race, so I decided to come and race here.

“I respect the organisation. I also respect the decision everybody made, but I think we’re one and two today with Alex [Vlasov], so a pretty good result for us in the end. We prepared all day like it was a TT day, with the fuelling strategy and everything, so it was better to use it as a good test – and with a nice result, so it’s even better like this.”

While most riders canvassed agreed with the decision to prohibit the use of time trial bikes after high winds had caused difficulties during the morning recon, Ivan Romeo (Movistar) was among those to question why the stage times had not counted towards the general classification.

In ordinary circumstances, Evenepoel would have used the time trial to lay the foundations of his general classification challenge. Instead, he remains seventh overall, nine seconds down on yellow jersey Biniam Girmay (NSN), despite his stage victory.

“I respect the decision that was made,” Evenepoel told Het Laatste Nieuws. “Am I frustrated? No. The wind was very strong. It did die down a bit towards the end, but these are choices we have to accept. There have already been enough serious crashes due to bad weather conditions.”

Evenepoel mastered the conditions on Thursday afternoon, clocking an average speed of 51.9km for the 17km.

“The climb would be a bit faster on a TT bike, but then the descent and crosswind parts would have been more tricky on a TT bike, so it had its advantages and disadvantages,” Evenepoel said. “Like said, we have a sport where we are allowed to take last-minute decisions, and we have to respect them. We have to be real sportsmen in our minds and be ready for flexibility as well.

“For me, it’s not a big difference. I also know I can ride pretty fast on a normal bike in a TT, so I just made a quick switch. We decided to race for the victory, and I think was a good decision.”

Evenepoel has now visited the podium on four of his first five days as a Red Bull rider, after leading his new squad to victory in the Trofeo Ses Salines last week and then claiming two more individual wins in Mallorca.

He will now look to add the overall title at the Volta Comunitat Valenciana to that haul, and he downplayed the idea that his strategy would have to change following the neutralisation of Thursday’s time trial result. “Tomorrow is another tough day,” he said. “We’ll see what’s possible and what’s not.”

On this form, of course, nothing looks impossible for Evenepoel.