<\/p>\n
The decisive moment came before the final climb, when the race split on a technical descent and a reduced group moved clear.<\/p>\n
Evenepoel forced the issue in that section, using the terrain to create separation and position Lipowitz in the front group that would go on to decide the stage. \u201cI knew it was a technical descent and that something could happen there,\u201d he explained. \u201cIn the valley, I was able to work together with a Bahrain rider. On the final climb, I just rode a hard tempo to the top. In the end, I only lose around ten seconds to Lipowitz and Martinez.\u201d<\/p>\n
From there, the stage was settled on the climb to Queralt, where Vingegaard attacked clear, leaving Lipowitz and Lenny Martinez to complete the podium behind.<\/p>\n
Plan adjusted on the road<\/p>\n
Evenepoel had not set out to ride in that role at the start of the stage, but adapted once his condition became clearer on the climbs. \u201cIt was actually a bit of a decision in the moment, because the plan was to try something on the penultimate climb,\u201d said the Olympic champion. \u201cHalfway up that climb, I felt that my legs weren\u2019t super. Good enough to ride hard, but I didn\u2019t have the feeling that I could go over my limit. I also didn\u2019t want to take any risks.\u201d<\/p>\n
His approach was also shaped by the after-effects of his earlier crash. \u201cAfter that crash, I had a few difficult days. The impact was bigger than expected.\u201d<\/p>\n
One more opportunity to come<\/p>\n
With the general classification now largely settled, Evenepoel turns his attention to the final stage in Barcelona. \u201cTomorrow\u2019s stage to Barcelona should suit me. The general classification is more or less decided, so I think there should be room to try something.\u201d<\/p>\n
After committing fully to the team on the decisive day in the mountains, the Belgian heads into the finale with a final chance to chase a result of his own.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The decisive moment came before the final climb, when the race split on a technical descent and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":501090,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[4985,110200,20997,7133,101,56,54,55,109652],"class_list":{"0":"post-501089","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cycling","8":"tag-cycling","9":"tag-florian-lipowitz","10":"tag-red-bull-bora-hansgrohe","11":"tag-remco-evenepoel","12":"tag-sports","13":"tag-uk","14":"tag-united-kingdom","15":"tag-unitedkingdom","16":"tag-volta-a-catalunya"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/501089","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=501089"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/501089\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/501090"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=501089"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=501089"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=501089"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}