Vuelta a Espaa Review: After having a few days to ponder Remco Evenepoels highly clinical and impressive dismantling of his competition to take his first grand tour victory at La Vuelta a Espaa, Spencer Martin wanted to go back through the defining stages to break down where exactly he won the three-week race over the now three-time runner-up Enric Mas.– This article is an excerpt from the Beyond the Peloton newsletter. Sign up here for full access. –The first of many Grand Tour wins for Remco Evenepoel?At first glance, Evenepoel won due to his superiority across every discipline and defending champion Primoz Rolgi arriving slightly undercooked before crashing out on stage 16. However, under closer inspection, while Evenepoel was by far the strongest rider against the clock in the races two time trials, he actually lost time on Vueltas mountain stages to the runner-up Enric Mas. And considering he was often either isolated or left with only a single teammate beside him in some of the most critical points in the race, Evenepoels win was more of a masterclass in taking time during the time trial set pieces and then simply defending on the open-road stages where, at least in theory, he was vulnerable due to his mid-race crash and lack of GC-specific team.The TT was important for the winFortunately for Evenepoel and his future chances, this is an extremely potent strategy for winning multiple grand tours due to the time advantage it gives a rider in the TTs and…
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