After a recent day of success for Soudal-QuickStep on the UAE Tour, race chief Remco Evenepoel says that even when the general victory is the principle objective of Sunday’s finale, one other stage win is on his Center East bucket record as effectively.
By Saturday night, Soudal-QuickStep had snapped up three levels out of a attainable six up to now, two due to sprinter Tim Merlier and one within the workforce time trial, whereas Evenepoel stays within the lead for a fourth straight day.
But when Evenepoel will probably be defending his purple chief’s jersey on a really totally different sort of terrain and backdrop to the skyscrapers of Abu Dhabi that mutely witnessed Merlier take his second win, the Belgian mentioned afterwards he would attempt to go for each the stage and the general on Sunday.
“Who is aware of, I want you would inform me,” Evenepoel mentioned, half-jokingly, when requested by one reporter what he thought might occur on the steeply rising slopes of Jebel Hafeet on Sunday afternoon.
“No, we’ll attempt to defend our jersey, it’s so simple as that. I feel defending the jersey is our greatest goal, and profitable the stage is the secondary one, however we’ll attempt to go for the double tomorrow.”
He additionally agreed that whereas the UAE Tour represented one other constructing block in his progress in direction of the Giro d’Italia, the Center East’s solely WorldTour race was a really vital objective in itself as effectively.
“Sure, as a result of it’s a WorldTour one-week race, and to this point, I haven’t gained so lots of these within the WorldTour, solely the Tour de Pologne [in 2020].”
“For me, the Giro is the large goal, however for certain, I wish to win some extra WorldTour week-long races or at the least get on the rostrum.
“And I feel to this point we’re doing effectively. However having the purple jersey on the final day of the race, I feel there’s no different possibility however attempting to win it.”
Remco mentioned that he couldn’t be disenchanted on Sunday if he was crushed by a stronger racer as a result of “it will likely be like that.” However he promised that attempting to win the stage was a definitive objective as effectively.
His time cushion of 9 seconds over Luke Plapp (Ineos Grenadiers) was not big, he identified, however it had its tactical benefits and allowed some room for manoeuvre. If Plapp gained, for instance, however Evenepoel claimed second on the identical time, then even after the time bonuses had been added up, he would nonetheless be forward total.
“Higher 9 seconds forward than 9 seconds behind, then,” he mentioned, “and now we have a robust workforce that may management the race. We are going to attempt to go for it.”
Evenepoel recognised that given Soudal-QuickStep’s runaway domination of the race to this point, with three jerseys – factors, finest younger rider, and total – of their energy in addition to these three levels, there was truly a hazard of dropping focus. And he cited Friday’s stage, the place the squad narrowly averted being caught out somewhat within the echelons late within the day, as one working example.
“Yesterday [Friday], there was a small second of not being focussed once we virtually missed the echelon. Then, in the long run, we might recuperate fairly straightforward, in order that was not a giant drawback.”
“Then right this moment, coming into the final two kilometres, there was this slender chicane and 10 kilometres earlier than that, I actually instructed my teammates that I wished to be up there within the first positions for it, simply to be protected for the broad roads that got here afterwards.
“I feel after yesterday’s small mistake, we knew we needed to keep focussed right this moment as effectively. We didn’t come out of the entrance 20 or 30 positions all day, and we might additionally see that within the remaining end result. And tomorrow, we’ll need to be focussed to try to win it.”
