'The bonus was there, so why not?' - Evenepoel steals early march at Volta Valenciana

Wednesday’s stage to Torreblanca was always likely to end in a sprint finish, but Evenepoel helped to ensure that it would be contested by a bunch of just 60 riders after his Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe squad split the field over the top of the day’s lone climb to Puerto Los Madroños.

Their forcing was partly with the following intermediate sprint in mind, and Evenepoel duly picked up a one-second time bonus, but there was also the brief possibility of putting time into chief rival João Almeida, who was initially caught out.

“Movistar went fast on the climb, and then I saw that only a small group remained. We took control on the descent and tried to gain a bonus second, and we succeeded,” Evenepoel told Sporza, though he downplayed the significance of the second gained on his GC rivals. “That’s not so important. The overall standings won’t come down to a second.”

Even so, the bonus second means that Evenepoel lies seventh overall, nine seconds down on stage winner Biniam Girmay (NSN) and it ensures that he will be among the last starters in the stage 2 time trial on Thursday.

“It’s more about being able to start a bit later in the day,” Evenepoel said of his bonus second. “They’re predicting rain in the morning, so the course will be dry by the time I start. That second was there, so why not?”

Red Bull had four riders in the initial group of 18 that formed after the day’s lone climb, but although they piled on the pressure, directeur sportif Klaas Lodewyck insisted that they weren’t immediately aware that Almeida had been caught out. The Portuguese rider latched back on when the front group swelled to 60 riders.

“There were plenty of other favourites in the group, so it wasn't necessary to burn through the entire team to try and distance Almeida,” Lodewyck told Sporza.

Evenepoel began his Red Bull career by guiding his new teammates to victory in the team time trial at the Trofeo Ses Salines last week, and he followed up by soloing to wins at the Trofeo Serra Tramuntana and the Trofeo Andratx. The 26-year-old will be heavily favoured to rack up another win in Thursday’s 17km time trial, a course he reconnoitred while training in Calpe in recent weeks. 

“We already reconnoitred the time trial during my mini training camp, but we’ll need to do that again tomorrow morning,” said Evenepoel, who warmed down aboard his time trial bike on Wednesday.

“Nothing to complain about,” was his broad assessment of the opening day in Valencia, where teammate Arne Marit ultimately took second place. Evenepoel will expect to have something to celebrate on Thursday.