Evenepoel does huge shift, but Vingegaard produces repeat act in Catalonia

Before the stage, much of the discussion was still about everything that had happened on Friday. That was not only about Vingegaard’s victory or the time lost by Remco Evenepoel and the other contenders, but especially about the crash suffered by Tom Pidcock. The Brit from Pinarello-Q36.5 revealed after the stage that he had fallen into a ravine.

A day later, Pidcock thankfully reported that he had been very lucky after crashing at around 60 kilometres per hour, although the damage turned out to be more serious than initially thought. On Friday, it had seemed he had escaped without injury, but scans later showed damage to the knee ligaments and small fractures in the tibia and fibula area. “My knee is quite swollen and it’ll take time to heal,” Pidcock said after further checks, while his team had already stated on Friday evening that he had gone off the road after misjudging a corner on a descent.

Without Pidcock, the peloton set off on Saturday’s mountain stage from Berga to Queralt. It began much like Friday had ended: chaotically. Michel Hessmann crashed during the neutralised section for Movistar, which delayed the start slightly. The German was eventually taken to hospital.

Once the stage properly got under way, a strong breakaway of fifteen riders quickly formed. Mattia Cattaneo, Richard Carapaz, Giulio Ciccone, Ramses Debruyne, Damien Howson, Andreas Leknessund, Bart Lemmen, Rudy Molard, Byron Munton, Nairo Quintana, Andrea Raccagni, Marc Soler, Jake Stewart, Embret Svestad-Bårdseng and Diego Uriarte all made it into the move.

With Leknessund the best-placed rider in the group and already some way down on general classification, Visma | Lease a Bike could have allowed the move more freedom. Instead, the Dutch team chose to keep the pace high with riders such as Menno Huising and Bruno Armirail, ensuring the lead never grew beyond two minutes.

At the front, Carapaz, Ciccone, Soler and Svestad-Bårdseng proved the strongest, while João Almeida was once again dropped from the peloton early when Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe took over on the penultimate climb, with around 30 kilometres still to race. Not long after, the first attacks began to fly, launched by Oscar Onley and Lenny Martinez.

Then it was remarkably Remco Evenepoel who moved to the front himself. The Belgian went to work for Florian Lipowitz and, on the descent, managed to put number two on GC Felix Gall under real pressure. Evenepoel’s huge turn on the front paid off perfectly for his German team-mate, who was able to begin the final climb in an excellent position.

Once the road went uphill, Evenepoel continued to drive the pace, with Vingegaard glued to the Red Bull wheels. The Dane then launched his move with 2.5 kilometres to go and, after only a few hundred metres of acceleration, dropped everyone. That was that.