Race leader Remco Evenepoel reveals he’s still feeling ‘stiff muscles’ from Stage 12 crash at La Vuelta 2022

Remco Evenepoel has revealed he “still feels stiff muscles” from his crash on Stage 12 at La Vuelta and is “really happy” to have a rest day on Monday.

He will now take a 1’34” lead going into the final week as he looks to hold off Roglic and Enric Mas (Movistar), who is 2’01” behind the Belgian.

“It’s actually my first time finishing [at] high [altitude] so I think I did quite well. Jumbo [Visma] did a really good race, my team as well,” said Evenepoel of Stage 15, which saw the riders reach the race’s highest point of 2,512m at Alto Hoya de la Mora.

“The start was really hard again, then [there was] a bit of a strange breakaway. I still feel stiff muscles from the crash but it’s getting better every day so I’m really happy that it’s a rest day tomorrow and that I actually lost almost nothing. So [it’s been] a good day for us.”

Evenepoel, who took the red jersey after Stage 6, has never completed a Grand Tour whilst Roglic is a three-time winner of La Vuelta.

The 22-year-old admits his crash from three days ago has “not been easy to cope with”.

“Now the third week [will be] another story,” added Evenepoel. “The climbs are not super, super hard anymore so I think, yesterday I had a pretty s**t day.

“Today was better so in the end I lost almost no time. I had to do the whole climb and then Primoz attacked me with 2km to go, which is in his right, but I think I managed it very well.”

After Monday’s rest day, the riders are back in the saddle on Tuesday for Stage 16, a 189.4km parcours from Sanlucar de Barrameda to Tomares, with the sprinters likely to get their day in the sun.

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