Best of the rest. Remco Evenepoel conceded ground on the Tour de France ’s opening day in the Pyrenees , but the Belgian has formally revised his ambitions for the race upwards after his resolute display on the slopes of Pla d’Adet on stage 14. Not for the first time in this race, Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) and Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease A Bike) were operating on an entirely different plane from everybody else in the closing kilometres.
In his younger and more vulnerable years, Evenepoel might have been tempted into reaching out to touch the flame, but these days, he has developed the knack of meting out his effort sagely on ascents such as this. Rather than try to follow Pogačar’s violent onslaught with 5km of the hors catégorie ascent remaining, Evenepoel delivered another measured effort, initially tracking Vingegaard before settling into a tempo that carried him to third place on the stage, 1:10 down. Although Evenepoel drops to third overall , some 2:22 off Pogačar, his hold on a podium place looks ever tighter, given that he now holds a buffer of 3:39 over fourth-placed João Almeida.
Having insisted a place in the top five was the summit of his ambition before the race began, Evenepoel can no longer deny that he has a podium place in Nice in his sights. “Yes, I think that’s clear,” Evenepoel said in the mixed zone afterwards. “I’ve got four on fourth place, so it’s a nice advantage.
But I’ve got to keep my feet on the ground, keep.