Remco Evenepoel happy to have limited losses on final gravel climb of Giro d'Italia stage nine
The Belgian lost a little time to Egan Bernal who overtook him in the general classification
Remco Evenepoel is happy to have limited his losses after the tough final gravel climb on stage nine of the 2021 Giro d'Italia.
Deceuninck - Quick-Step team-mate João Almeida could be seen looking around for the Belgian in the closing kilometres, as Evenepoel found himself towards the back of the GC group.
But after Ineos Grenadiers' Egan Bernal skipped away to claim his maiden Grand Tour stage victory and the maglia rosa, the 21-year-old fought back to finish fourth, limiting his losses to the Colombian to just 10 seconds on the road, Bernal also taking bonus seconds on the line to push his GC lead out to 15 seconds over Evenepoel.
"The start of the day was very hard, but the toughest moment of the day came on the white gravel roads. I was in a good position in the tunnel, when a team-mate of Bernal almost touched his wheel and because of that I lost some places," Evenepoel said after the finish.
"It’s racing and it happens, but the good thing is that I could gain a couple of positions by the time I arrived at the finish, where I just missed out on the bonus seconds. Fortunately, I didn’t concede that much time, which is good ahead of next week. We can be proud of our work and of how the team rode today."
Evenepoel remains second in the general classification ahead of a flatter day tomorrow and then Tuesday's rest day. This being his debut Grand Tour, it's already the longest the young rider has raced in his career so far, and he is now in unknown territory.
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Deceuninck - Quick-Step's GC ambitions solely rest in the hands of Evenepoel, with João Almeida and Fausto Masnada sitting five and six minutes down on GC respectively.
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Jonny was Cycling Weekly's Weekend Editor until 2022.
I like writing offbeat features and eating too much bread when working out on the road at bike races.
Before joining Cycling Weekly I worked at The Tab and I've also written for Vice, Time Out, and worked freelance for The Telegraph (I know, but I needed the money at the time so let me live).
I also worked for ITV Cycling between 2011-2018 on their Tour de France and Vuelta a España coverage. Sometimes I'd be helping the producers make the programme and other times I'd be getting the lunches. Just in case you were wondering - Phil Liggett and Paul Sherwen had the same ham sandwich every day, it was great.