{"id":480666,"date":"2026-02-17T12:33:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-17T12:33:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/480666\/"},"modified":"2026-02-17T12:33:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-17T12:33:08","slug":"new-outfit-and-early-start-time-give-evenepoel-the-edge-over-del-toro-perfect-scenario","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/480666\/","title":{"rendered":"New \u2018outfit\u2019 and early start time give Evenepoel the edge over Del Toro: \u201cPerfect scenario\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

Remco Evenepoel<\/a> had to spend a long time in the hot seat, but it was worth it. The Belgian delivered a blistering ride in the UAE Tour<\/a> time trial and took victory against the clock. Most important, though, was the time he gained on his rivals \u2014 and especially on Isaac Del Toro. Now, with the toughest climbing days still to come, the task becomes defending on the key ascents.There were a couple of notable changes for Evenepoel at Red Bull\u2013BORA\u2013hansgrohe. He rolled out with a bigger chainring and, for the first time in this time trial, long sleeves. \u201cI\u2019m glad someone noticed,\u201d he told Het Laatste Nieuws<\/a>. \u201cIt\u2019s basically the only change that came out of our last wind tunnel visit. I\u2019m getting a bit older, eh,\u201d he laughed. \u201cSo maybe my skin is too.\u201dThe new suit appeared to do its job. Evenepoel started fifth and immediately set the fastest time. It was the quickest time trial of his career, with an average speed of more than 56 kilometres per hour. \u201cIt was pretty fast \u2014 it was flat and not super technical \u2014 so it was the perfect course to go that hard,\u201d he said in a post-race flash interview<\/a>. \u201cI\u2019m happy I could do it today.\u201d<\/p>\n

Evenepoel has enjoyed success at the UAE Tour before, but until now he had never won an individual stage there. \u201cWe won the team time trial in 2023, and after that I finished second twice on uphill finishes. It feels good to take my first individual stage win in the UAE Tour.\u201d That same 2023 edition did end in overall victory for Evenepoel, even though Einer Rubio and Adam Yates were the strongest on the climbs.<\/p>\n

Read on below the video!<\/p>\n

Open battle on Jebel Mobrah? \u201cPerfect scenario\u201d<\/p>\n

Del Toro won the opening stage, but that came with a disadvantage in the time trial: as race leader, he was forced into the organiser-provided leader\u2019s kit \u2014 and the wind conditions later in the day were less favourable, too. In the red leader\u2019s jersey, the Mexican ultimately conceded 42 seconds to the stage winner, handing Evenepoel a strong platform for the next few days, with two mountain stages still on the menu.<\/p>\n

Evenepoel felt his main rival had little else to find on the day. \u201cI think he got the maximum out of it. We knew it was better to start a bit earlier, but he won yesterday and I won today. We both have a stage win in the pocket, so nobody will have regrets. From now on, it\u2019s an open fight for the general classification.\u201d<\/p>\n

That battle resumes immediately on Wednesday with the stage to Jebel Mobrah, the first summit finish of the race. It is a brand-new climb and a brutally hard one \u2014 potentially ideal terrain for Del Toro. Evenepoel is ready for what comes next. \u201cWith those tough climbs, it will be a bit more comfortable to defend than to attack,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s a perfect scenario for us \u2014 now we have to try to defend it all the way to Sunday.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Remco Evenepoel had to spend a long time in the hot seat, but it was worth it. The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":480667,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[445],"tags":[49,48,635,18460,5901,82,129545,141377],"class_list":{"0":"post-480666","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cycling","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-cycling","11":"tag-red-bull-bora-hansgrohe","12":"tag-remco-evenepoel","13":"tag-sports","14":"tag-uae-team-emirates-xrg","15":"tag-uae-tour"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/480666","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=480666"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/480666\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/480667"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=480666"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=480666"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=480666"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}