Remco Evenepoel (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) dominated in the stage 2 individual time trial of the Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana, but because organisers neutralised the stage GC due to extremely windy conditions, he did not unseat Biniam Girmay (NSN Cycling Team) from the race lead.
The sun came out for the stage, but earlier blustery conditions threatened the race infrastructure and knocked over barricades, leading organisers to make a difficult call to both neutralise the GC and prohibit time trial bikes.
Riding on his normal road machine, Evenepoel still clocked nearly 52kph for the 17.5-kilometre test and beat Aleksandr Vlasov (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) by eight seconds. Mathias Vacek (Lidl-Trek) was third at 15 seconds.
"There was still the stage win to grab and also, I want to respect the organisation," Evenepoel explained why he put in a full effort to win. "They decided to keep the race - go for a stage result. So yeah, I decided to come and race here. I respect the organisation. I also respect the decision everybody made."
Unfortunately, the time gaps didn't count toward the overall classification, so Evenepoel is still a distant seventh, nine seconds behind Girmay. The Belgian's teammate, Arne Marit is second overall at four seconds. Giovanni Londardi (Polti-VisitMalta) is third overall at six seconds.
"In the end, we prepared all day like it was TT day, so with the fuel and everything, so it was better to use this as a good test with a nice result," Evenepoel added.
He supported the organisation's decision to require road bikes for the stage.
"The climb would be a bit faster on a TT bike. Of course, a decent in the crosswinds would be a bit more tricky on the TT bike, so I think that it has advantages and disadvantages.
"We have a sport where we are allowed to take last-minute decisions, and we have to respect them. So we also need to be real sportsmen in our minds and be ready for flexibility as well. For me, it was not a big difference. I also know I can ride pretty fast on a normal bike in a TT. So yeah, I just made a quick switch, and we decided to race for the victory. So I think it was a good decision."
How it unfolded
Stage 2 of the Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana was hit by high winds, forcing organisers to neutralise the GC for the 17.5-kilometre time trial from Carlet to Alginet.
Although the breezy conditions eased over the afternoon, riders were required to race on road bikes rather than riskier aerodynamic time trial equipment.
Because of the neutralisation, most riders took an impromptu rest day. Magnus Cort (Uno-X Mobility) averaged less than 36 kph.
Others took a chance to get a decent effort into their legs, with Felix Großschartner (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) setting one of the faster early times at 21:01.
As the afternoon wore on, Großschartner's time fell to his teammates Brandon McNulty and Florian Vermeersch and Magnus Sheffield (Ineos Grenadiers) before Mathias Vacek (Lidl-Trek) surpassed them all with a time of 20:28.
From the first time check, it became clear that Evenepoel wasn't taking an easy day, and he went 8 seconds quicker than Vacek at the intermediate time check.
While en route, Evenepoel might have learned his teammate Aleksandr Vlasov had set the fastest time at 20:20. Evenepoel passed Carl-Frederik Bévort (Uno-X Mobility) and kept powering on to the line to surpass Vlasov with a 20:12 and only six more riders were still to finish.
One of them, stage 1 winner Girmay put barely any pressure on the pedals with that yellow jersey not at risk.
Results
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