Evenepoel rode into the red leader’s jersey on Stage 6 to Pico Jano where he finished second to Australian Jay Vine (Alpecin-Deceuninck).
A commanding performance on Stage 9 saw the 22-year-old Belgian extend his lead over his main rivals and enter the rest day with a one minute and 12 second lead over second overall, Enirm Mas (Movistar). The gap from Evenepoel to third overall, Primož Roglič (Jumbo-Visma), is one minute and 53 seconds.
“I’ve been working hard the entire season for this Vuelta,” said Evenepoel. “I made a lot of sacrifices, and I think this shows that if you believe in yourself and never give up it will pay off at some point.”
While Evenepoel’s preparation for the race has certainly paid dividends in terms of consistency, his second-place finish on Stage 6 remains his best finish on a stage so far.
“Going into the second week of the race, my goal hasn’t changed. I came here focused on taking a stage victory and finishing in the top ten overall," he said.
“Of course, it feels great and it makes you proud to wear the leader’s jersey in a Grand Tour, because it’s something you need to earn, but my primary objective remains getting that win and stick[ing] to the plan, which is taking it one day at a time and be as fresh as possible for the remaining stages.”
Tonight’s 30.9 kilometre time trial from Elche to Alicante provides another opportunity for Evenepoel to extend his overall lead and hopefully grab that much-anticipated stage victory. Evenepoel, the current Belgian individual time trial champion, said he is really looking forward to it.
“It’s completely flat, even going more down than up,” Evenepoel said of tonight’s course. “Only in the last three kilometres, there is a one-kilometre climb which can make it really hard, because you’ll already be full of lactate after 30 minutes of full gas.”
Stage 10 is the only individual time trial in this year’s Vuelta. After a week of racing in the mountains, the Mediterranean coast will now host the riders.
The pancake-flat time-trial course will start in Elche and head towards the coastline. The second half of the time-trial will be by the sea.
Evenepoel also has is eyes on Stage 15, which finishes on Sierra Nevada at 2,512 metres above sea level and will be one of the decisive stages of the tour.
“The [final] Sierra climb is not the hardest one,” said Evenpoel. “It's just really long. And it's the altitude that might be the most difficult to handle.
“But that’s what I’ve been training for the whole month of July and the beginning of August. In Livigno, I slept around 2,300 [metres] and in the SyncroSfera [hotel which offers altitude rooms], I slept a bit above it.
“I’ve been preparing with a lot of altitude, we know it works well for me. But we’ll see, Sunday is still long off.”
Tune in tonight for Stage 10, a 30.9 kilometre individual time trial from Elche to Alicante, LIVE from 11pm (AEST) on SBS and SBS On Demand.
