La Vuelta 2022: How Remco Evenepoel showed signs of discomfort as red jersey cracks for first time

Adam Blythe has noticed Remco Evenepoel (Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl) shows he’s in trouble when he looks down to a device on his bike which tells him his power output and how long is left of the stage. Evenepoel cracked for the first time at La Vuelta when Primoz Roglic (Jumbo-Visma) launched an attack on the summit finish at La Pandera, losing 52 seconds to the Slovenian who is now 1’49” behind in the general classification. Ad On The Breakaway, Blythe explained how Juan Ayuso (UAE Team Emirates) helped Evenepoel ride his way back into the stage to limit his losses.

Vuelta a EspañaLa Vuelta Stage 14 Highlights: Dramatic day as Evenepoel cracks, Roglic gains time and Carapaz winsAN HOUR AGO “The way that he was able to get back into his rhythm, I think Ayuso coming back past him on a neutral service bike must not have been great for his morale on that,” said Blythe. “I think just having that carrot there in front of you a little bit [helped]. I think he was completely isolated, he wouldn't have had a gauge to how quick he was going and I just noticed, up until right at the bottom of the climb, he was always playing with his computer.

“To me he’s either looking at the power or looking at the map seeing how long he’s got to go at certain points of the climb. “But as soon as he's doing that, for me, when you're comfortable, you never look down and go, ‘Oh, this is hard’. “As soon as you start thinking it's hard, you want to know the numbers and especially Remco because I think he does ride on numbers.