Vuelta a Espana 2022 : Stage 10 – Remco scorches in Alicante time trial

Holy WOW! The hot money was on Remco Evenepoel (Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl) to win stage 10 of the Vuelta a Espana, and that’s exactly what happened. The bare facts speak for themselves. Clad in a red skinsuit Remco rocketed around the 30.9km flat course at an average speed of 55.658kph. Putting 48 seconds into Jumbo-Visma’s Primoz Roglic – the man who had never lost a time trial on Spanish soil, and beating his teammate (and long time stage leader) Remi Cavagna by a minute. He now leads the Vuelta by two minutes and forty one seconds from Roglic with Movistar’s Enric Mas in third

Here’s your highlights.

Remco

Of all the tweets I have seen today, Beth has summed Remco’s display the best.

His victory had an air of inevitability about it from the second he rolled of the ramp and got that huge gear turning on a course that suited his coiled power to a tee.

In his own words while looking fresh as a daisy!

My favourite description of TT Remco – thank you Robbie McEwan

Step into a Remco free world

It wasn’t that all of the contenders for the maillot rojo had bad days. In fact if you ignore Remco’s time, the stage results looked pretty much as you might expect for this group.

I admit I was worried about Roglic, but he laid down a fantastic time to beat a scorching Cavagna. Enough to take him past Mas  on the podium steps.

I am happy about it. I think I can I did a good time trial. It’s a nice result and a big congrats to Remco. He’s on a different level at the moment.

Enric Mas is not a noted time triallist. He could have dropped a bundle of time, so only losing a minute to Rog and thereby dropping to third is not as bad as it might have been.

I think we did not do too badly.

PLUS he wasn’t Remco’ed which is always a worry for any rider.

The INEOS young guns came out blazing and now have three riders in the top 10 on GC. Whether this will give them tactical options in the mountains remains to be seen.

Even BikeExchange-Jayco had good news to impart

And back to reality

As much as we may wish it, La Vuelta is not Remco free. We can’t ignore the tighter stranglehold he now has on the race lead.

But we can always fall back on the old adage – it’s a long LONG way to go with days in the mountains to face. Will three minutes be enough?

Only time, Jumbo-Visma and Movistar will tell.

Unfortunately we have to covid to that list, especially given the number of riders who have tested positive.

Sadly of those not taking the start today was Sam Bennett (BORA-hansgrohe)

If we expect riders to retire from the race when they test positive, then surely some sort of covid protocol should be established to protect them. The race organisers can’ have it both ways.

Time trial shenanigans

Poor Joao Almeida (UAE Team-Emitrates) went off route in the finale and lost 20seconds or so.

The face sock – JUST NO! Look how much trouble Quickstepper Remi had taking the thing off.

While the Vuelta King of the Mountain jersey is a thing of beauty, I have no words to describe the skinsuit version. Chapeau to Jay Vine for wearing it.

The Final Word

Results

Stage 10 results

1 Remco Evenepoel (Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl) 0:33:18

2 Primoz Roglic (Jumbo-Visma) +0:48

3 Remi Cavagna (Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl) +1:00

4 Carlos Rodriguez (INEOS Grenadiers) +1:22

5 Pavel Sivakov (INEOS Grenadiers ) +1:27

GC Top 10

1 Remco Evenepoel (Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl ) 34:35:50

2 Primož Roglic (Jumbo-Visma) +2:41

3 Enric Mas (Movistar) +3:03

4 Carlos Rodriguez (INEOS Grenadiers) +3:55

5 Simon PHILLIP Yates (Team BikeExchange – Jayco) +4:50

6 Juan Ayuso (UAE Team Emirates) +4:53

7 João Almeida (UAE Team Emirates) +6:45

8 Miguel Angel Lopez (Astana Qazaqstan) +6:50

9 Pavel Sivakov (INEOS Grenadiers) +7:06

10 Tao Geoghegan Hart (INEOS Grenadiers) +7:37

All the Jerseys

Leader’s jersey : Remco Evenepoel (Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl)

Points jersey : Mads Pedersen (Trek-Segafredo)

King of the Mountains jersey : Jay Vine (Alpecin-Deceuninck)

Young Rider Jersey : Remco Evenepoel (Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl)

Team competition : INEOS Grenadiers

For the full stage review, go to cyclingnews

Go here for the official La Vuelta website

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