‘I couldn’t go faster… quite a perfect TT’ – Remco Evenepoel evens the score with Isaac del Toro at UAE Tour, builds 32-second lead over rival ahead of first mountain test

Everything came together for Remco Evenepoel (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) as he executed what he called “quite a perfect TT” on stage 2 of the UAE Tour, turning a 68t-chainring to his sixth victory of the season already and building a lead on GC ahead of the first big mountain test.

All eyes were on the World Champion as he rolled down the ramp as only the fifth starter, and after beating the time set by Rémi Cavagna (Groupama-FDJ United), he had to wait over two hours for victory to be confirmed, but a 14.9km beast now awaits him at Jebel Mobrah tomorrow.

He’ll be in red too, after evening the score with Isaac del Toro (UAE Team Emirates-XRG), following his surge to victory on stage 1. Evenepoel grasped the lead of the race with two hands, beating the Mexican by 42 seconds with the fastest time trial win of his career and taking a 32-second lead into stage 3.

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“I think for today, I couldn’t go faster. It’s also wasn’t my very favourite TT, short and very explosive, so it’s something that should suit Joshua [Tarling] a little bit better than me, but I just did my maximum,” said Evenepoel during his post-race press conference.

“First time check, I had the fastest time, and then even a bit faster than the others on the second time splits on the finish line, so I think in general, it was quite a perfect TT.”

The highlight of Wednesday’s final climb is the almost 7km to the line averages 12% in gradient, with sweltering heat towards the top also set to play a big role. Evenepoel, despite none of his wins in Mallorca or Valencia featuring a climb quite as difficult, feels he’s up to the task.

“Of course, I’m very curious [to see how I perform]. I’ve been training quite a lot on longer efforts and shorter efforts, so I should be ready for tomorrow,” said the Belgian.

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“I think it’s going to be a very specific race, also with now being 30 seconds ahead of the rest. So it’s going to be pretty exciting. We’ll see how everything goes. I’ll do my best and defend the jersey with everything I have.”

Though it was only just over 13 minutes that Evenepoel was performing for, his day was carefully planned out, with his warm-ups being done in the comfort of Wolfi’s bike shop while most of the remaining teams had to prep in the heat of a nearby car park. It’s a similar luxury that Tadej Pogačar enjoyed during last year’s race, doing his TT prep inside the Abu Dhabi cycling club.

“With the years, I have more and more rituals. Before the TT today was a bit special because it was an early start, and I’m not really used to starting around 1:00 p.m.,” Evenepoel said.

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“That’s why everything had to be shortened a bit. I only rode around 35 minutes in the morning, instead of one hour, then only one hour between the ride and the warm-up, so everything was really packed, also in terms of fueling.

“But in the end, I knew yesterday night perfectly what I had to do. It also gives me a calm feeling that I know that everything is planned and structured, and usually when everything is on the spot, it’s always more or less a good TT day.”

Unlike Del Toro, who had to start last as the race leader, Evenepoel also benefitted from being able to pick his starting time, with him, Tarling and many of the other favourites opting for the earlier slot to avoid what was forecast to be higher winds later in the day.

In the end, the Belgian said this didn’t play too much of a factor, and that again, the early time was beneficial to his recovery ahead of tackling 7km at 12%.

“When the guys around me were riding, the wind was already pretty strong, so I think it came up earlier than they predicted,” he said.

“Also, I think now it’s not super, super windy as well, so maybe the influence was a little bit less than we expected yesterday. But in the end, we were also good to start my effort early in the day.

“We still have quite a long transfer to go; tomorrow is also a pretty hard stage, so I could start my recovery a bit sooner already. It had pros and cons, but in the end, I’m happy with the decisions we took.”