Greig Leach

It does amuse me when a rider is off the front on his own in a sea of cycling fans is described as being 'all alone.' Clearly Remco Evenepoel (Belgium) is anything but alone as he rides away from Alexey Lutsenko (Kazakhstan) at the summit of his penultimate climb of Mount Pleasant. While the cycling fans along the road have been growing in number by the hour, they were doing rather well at staying out of the way of the racers. It had not been the plan by Belgium to have Evenepoel go for the victory, but the winner of the Veulta d'Espania was in the right place with the right form with just 25 kilometers to race. It may have smarted a bit to ride over the name of Wout Van Aert (Belgium) painted on the road. Or it may have given him that extra motivation since Wout was the theoretical leader of the Belgium team. Regardless, he looked set to bring home the first Rainbow Jersey to Belgium since Philippe Gilbert won it ten years ago. Fitting since Gilbert retired at the end of this year's Tour de France.