The first big climbing test of the season for Remco Evenepoel came on stage 5 of Volta a Catalunya, which concluded atop Coll de Pal. While he didn't get the high marks that might have been expected, the Belgian rider was not worried about his form.
While Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) sailed past him on the final climb of the day, and in the GC standings as well, Evenepoel was not overly concerned, acknowledging that it was team success to have another climber to divide and conquer when necessary.
The Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe rider finished sixth on Friday and conceded time in the GC standings, dropping to sixth place. His teammate Florian Lipowitz, however, finished fourth on the stage and is four seconds off the overall podium.
"Lipo' was at the front, so it wasn't up to me to chase," Evenepoel said after the race to Sporza. "There wasn't great cooperation in our group, with riders taking turns attacking; otherwise, we might have ridden towards the group ahead of us. But for us, that situation was OK: there were just the two of us.
"Yes, for me it's all OK, too. It's a different feeling to ride with another strong climber. Then we can divide the tasks a bit and use each other. I was able to wait for my sprint because of him; he didn't have to ride at the front because I followed."
Attacks flew once the peloton had cleared the first four of five categorised climbs on the 153.1km route, with the highest section of the final 17km ascent to La Molina trimmed by 2.2km because of high winds. Giulio Ciccone (Lidl-Trek) tried to go clear as the final climb approached, but he was overtaken halfway.
A group led by Mikel Landa (Soudal-QuickStep), Felix Gall (Decathlon CMA CGM), Lenny Martinez (Bahrain Victorious), Florian Lipowitz (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) and Afonso Eulalio (Bahrain Victorious) then attacked. Further up the climb, Vingegaard and Evenepoel were followed by Valentin Paret-Peintre (Soudal-QuickStep) and six others, in a surge and caught the Gall group.
Evenepoel couldn't respond to an acceleration by the Dane, now under 7km to race, and he switched roles with teammate Lipowitz on the final part of the climb.
"Jonas Vingegaard's attack was very hard. It was very difficult to follow him," Evenepoel told Belgian media outlet Nieuwsblad. "Once the groups had formed after that, I didn't suffer too much for a few kilometres. So maybe there was more in it for me today, but for our team, this is a good result."
Evenepoel crashed on Wednesday in the final kilometre on stage 3, but slotted into second overall, while Vingegaard moved into the top 10 that day. Two days later, Vingegaard would climb into the lead, 57 seconds over Gall, with the mountain victory.
Red Bull may have seen Evenepoel drop several spots in the overall, but Lipowitz was in fourth place, up 20 spots, and just four seconds from a podium with two days to go.
"The feeling wasn't super-super, but I've felt worse two days after a fall. My neck and back muscles were still stiff, and my hand is still a bit open. That's annoying, but it won't stop me from racing hard," Evenepoel told Sporza.
"The feeling is already better than a month ago, so there is no reason to panic. On the contrary, now I want to keep growing step by step, so it will be fine, right?
"Tomorrow is immediately a completely different stage as well, with shorter climbs. It is roughly the same course as in 2024, when Pogačar won, back then it was also completely split apart. So it will be a bit of a mini-classic with many attacks, so there are definitely opportunities there."
