'Sitting on his wheel, or doing a pull myself, in terms of power it was almost the same' - Red Bull teammates react on first TTT with Evenepoel

The quotes collected by Het Nieuwsblad afterwards offered the clearest snapshot of what this new setup with Evenepoel feels like from the inside.

For Nico Denz, riding second wheel behind Evenepoel came with a clear reality. “Sitting on his wheel, or doing a pull myself, in terms of power it was almost the same.” 

It was not a complaint, more a reflection of two things at once: the simple difference in build between the taller Denz (1.83m) and the compact Evenepoel (1.71m), and the fact that when Evenepoel is driving it on the front the pace is so high that the second wheel can feel like work rather than shelter. Denz kept it simple. “Someone has to do it.”

Patxi Vila, who coordinates the team time trial work, captured the broader point about what Evenepoel brings to this kind of effort. 

“How do you use Remco best? By just keeping him on the front as long as possible,” he said. “The jersey he’s wearing isn’t for nothing.” Evenepoel was the reference, the metronome, the rider they wanted to build the whole run around.

Maxim Van Gils gave the specifics, and those were telling too. “Remco did not necessarily do the highest watt pulls, but definitely the longest. About one and a half minutes. Lipo one minute.”

The run showed how quickly a plan can change. Red Bull had a detailed pacing schedule, but a late rise forced an adjustment. The roadbook barely flagged it: 1.2 kilometres, up to four percent, 32 metres of elevation. It turned out to be the moment the team time trial was decided.

Vila admitted it in the car. “We took a risk.” Cattaneo was asked to take a longer turn so Evenepoel could hit the foot of the climb on the front. The move worked, but Cattaneo dropped and the group was reduced to four.

That was where Denz became central to the finish. Van Gils described it as “a dead pull from Nico all the way to the top, but after that he could luckily slot back in. We knew it was close. After the climb we really threw ourselves downhill.”

The numbers were fast, 59.674 kilometres per hour, and the comparisons arrived immediately. Some called it the fastest team time trial ever, while Belgian journalist Jonas Creteur described it as the quickest since Burgos 2011, when Movistar averaged 66.6 kilometres per hour. 

What mattered more for the team was the feeling of the first test. As Evenepoel put it, “Team time trials are important for us with the Tour in mind,” and on that level he sounded satisfied. “Today’s test was definitely a success.”