Remco Evenepoel looked despondent and a bit shell-shocked after he finished today's stage 11 at the Giro d'Italia, as the clip below shows. But he has said he is still in the race and has vowed to fight on.
The young Deceuninck-QuickStep rider was 2nd overall this morning and had been spoken of as a potential overall winner of Giro 2021. He was hotly tipped because of his immense talent and despite being only 21 years old, making his Grand Tour debut and not having raced since last August due to a broken pelvis suffered at Il Lombardia.
However, on the 162km stage 11 from Perugia to Montalcino today he showed he is human; faltering physically and mentally. However, he has not lost so much time it would be impossible for him to finish on the podium or even win the race outright. The big test in the days to come will be how he recovers from having taken a battering, especially since he is normally the rider putting everyone else under pressure.
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Today's stage 11 was dubbed the “Strade Bianche” stage because of the gravel sections that littered the second half of the route. Evenepoel never looked comfortable on the gravel. As Ineos Grenadiers took on the race immediately the field hit the first sector of gravel the peloton split to pieces. Very soon a group of about 40 formed, with the breakaway already long gone up the road.
Soon after that group of approximately 40 riders formed, Evenepoel's vulnerability became clear. He was often at the back of the group, before being dropped on the descents and then battling back on. But with 25km to go that fight really began to take its toll.
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And once race leader Egan Bernal and his Ineos Grenadiers team mates sensed the young Belgian was in trouble they piled on the pressure and he was soon dropped. He drifted off the back, with his team mate João Almeida not waiting for him to help him back on.
And before Almeida eventually dropped back for him, Evenepoel had shown his frustration to the world by taking his radio earpiece from his ear and throwing it away in a pronounced gesture. Belgian media reported that when Evenepoel and Almeida, who is leaving the time at season end, did not speak to each other at stage end.
By the finish they had lost 5:17 to the brilliant 21-year-old stage winner, and Grand Tour debutant, Mauro Schmid (Qhubeka ASSOS). He claimed an impressive win from the breakaway. Evenepoel had lost 2:08 to Bernal during the stage. However, while that time loss is a real blow to him, Evenepoel's general classification challenge is far from over.
He was 2nd this morning just 14 seconds down on Bernal and he is now 7th at 2:22; a not insurmountable gap if he comes into top form and Bernal faltered at all. Evenepoel is also only 1:37 off 2nd placed overall Aleksandr Vlasov (Astana-Premier Tech). The young Belgian star has vowed to fight on, saying the Giro is nowhere near over.
“It wasn’t the best day for me. I was suffering a lot on
the second sector, then on the third one, when they started sprinting, I felt
the legs were pretty empty, that’s why I was in the last position and couldn’t
follow,” said Evenepoel.
“It’s the way my body reacted after eleven days of racing
that came after so much time with no racing. I’m thankful to the team and João
for the job they did for me today, from the start until the finish.
“It’s not a good result for me, but I’m still seventh in my first Grand Tour and remain confident, as there’s still a long way to go until Milano."
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