La Vuelta 2022 – ‘S*** happens!’ – Remco Evenepoel reflective after initially raging about crash on Stage 12

After initially fuming, Remco Evenepoel filed his unfortunate spill on Stage 12 of La Vuelta under “s*** happens”.

The 22-year-old Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl rider had initially raged after losing his front wheel on a innocuous bend during the descent back towards the coast at a point in the race when Quick-Step were under no real pressure.

And in his post-race interview, he cut a far more reflective mood, asked whether he had suffered any damage, he replied:

“Yeah, just my leg, but it’s fine I think.

“My bike is much worse than myself so… it was a super slippery corner. I think the motorbikes were slipping as well and slowing down. That’s why actually – I wanted to cut the corner but it was a bit too much but yeah.

“Sorry for my language but s*** happens.”

The 22-year-old re-joined the peloton before leading the red jersey group home in an unexpected show of strength, and he told Eurosport after the race that he made the move as he felt he had something left in the tank.

“[In the] last 200 metres I just went out to sprint because I felt I had something left so it was a good feeling.”

“What he did in that final 3km was perfect,” said Blythe.

“He got on the front, dictated the pace. He rode at such a hard pace, that he was distancing riders in the last 700 metres, and just riding at that tempo it stopped everyone from attacking. And ultimately he’s in control, it’s showing everyone he’s in control, and that is a very mature way to ride.”

Evenepoel will hope there are no ill effects to his crash as La Vuelta continues on Friday with the lumpy 171km Stage 13, which favours the breakaway specialists and sprinters with a decent uphill kick.

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