“That only gives more motivation and wings,” Evenepoel winks after another win

Evenepoel had his Red Bull–BORA–hansgrohe teammates working from kilometre zero. “It’s great to be able to ride a stage like this. As a team we had to control from the start, and we basically did everything perfectly the way we wanted. It was another perfect day,” he told Sporza.

“From Arne (Marit) to Giulio (Pellizzari) and then Vlasov at the end, my teammates did it perfectly. Big compliments to everyone. It feels really good to be surrounded like this and to be able to race the way we do.”

Evenepoel spends part of the year living in Calpe, close to where Saturday’s stage was held. “I already knew a few weeks ago that I was going to go in the last 500 metres of the Cumbre del Sol. That’s the hardest section, with a bit of crosswind too. I went full gas up there on the big ring. That turned out to be the right attack.”

Antonio Tiberi managed to latch on briefly, but had to let go after a few hundred metres. From there, the Belgian powered through a 15-kilometre solo to Teulada, arriving with close to half a minute in hand.

“It’s nice that I could finish off this perfect team day with a win. That only gives more motivation and wings — to say it with a wink,” Evenepoel repeated. “It’s truly great to be racing in a team like this.”