Vuelta a Espana 2023: Remco Evenepoel upbeat despite missing out on stage win – ‘Many more opportunities to come’

Remco Evenepoel remained upbeat after Stage 10 of the Vuelta a Espana, despite a slightly underwhelming performance in Tuesday’s time trial.

Speaking after the stage, he said: “It’s pretty good knowing that I didn’t have the best time trial today; I had a difficult moment after 10 minutes, so I think that’s the reason why I lost some time on people.

“If a guy deserves this stage win, it’s him [Ganna], so overall, I think we should be happy with the GC result, but it’s a pity we don’t take this stage today.

“To be second twice and already have a stage win in the pocket is pretty nice for the first 10 days of this Vuelta. We have to be happy with the GC gaps that I took today, or the GC leader took today. And also, coming close to Sepp, who actually did a good time trial. So, big congratulations to him and onto tomorrow.

He added: “I think they [Jumbo-Visma] told him [Kuss] to go all-out today and not lose too much time, because of course they want to play the game with the three leaders.

“I think he did a very good job and, like I say, a big chapeau to him. I was pretty surprised when I saw his finish. But in the end, it’s still a very long Vuelta and many more opportunities to come.”

However, speaking on The Breakaway, Daniel Lloyd believes the Belgian will reflect on a missed opportunity, after not pulling further clear of his Team Jumbo-Visma rivals Primoz Roglic and Jonas Vingegaard.

He said: “Whatever he said before the start, he basically claimed he didn’t care whether he won the stage or not because of Filippo Ganna being in it, and already spoke about the prospect of not winning.

“But after his facial expressions at the end, I got the sense he felt he didn’t do quite as well as he was hoping to do on the day.

“When he looks at the results of the stage and the general classification, he’ll be fairly satisfied, but he would’ve hoped to put a bit more time into a few of the other riders.

“Roglic did a really solid ride to come third today. We know his capabilities as a time trialist, but I think he must’ve taken around 20 seconds off Roglic, maybe a little bit less than that. He would’ve hoped for at least half a minute.

“He’ll be happy that he’s put a minute into Jonas Vinegegaard, who is one of the guys that I thought under-performed today, but he is yet to catch Sepp Kuss.

“So, you’re looking at it thinking there are positives in this, but there’s still one Jumbo-Visma rider that’s still ahead of me and I’ve got one still breathing down my neck. You can never discount Jonas Vingegaard when it comes to the high mountains, which we’ll get later on this week. So he’s in a tricky situation.”