Overall leader at the Vuelta a Espana, Remco Evenepoel, discussed the chess match between those vying for the general classification (GC) title as he holds the lead through 15 stages.
On Sunday for the 15th stage, Belgium's Evenepoel finished 10th, 11 seconds behind his top GC rival Slovenian Primoz Roglic, while Spain's Enric Mas also cut into the lead.
Evenepoel will carry the red jersey and a one-minute-34-second lead into the 16th stage on Tuesday, and when speaking to the media he dove into the strategy of a grand tour (GT).
"Roglic and Mas are both going very well," he said. "Roglic was the strongest of all the GC guys on Saturday, Mas was very strong [on Sunday].
"When Mas attacked I also knew I was still quite a bit ahead of him in the GC so I didn’t want to go above my own limits, because we were already above 2000m of altitude and what we saw is they attacked, took a gap but then me keeping up my own pace didn’t really allow them to ride away.
"I was a bit scared to go above my limits, so I kept pushing my own power, and I think on such a hard stage the time loss was quite limited.
"It’s now the third week, the guy with the best legs will probably be the best in the mountain stages, but the Vuelta is far from over."
With six stages remaining, Evenepoel has a chance to become the first Belgian winner of a GT since 1978, but he says he does not feel pressured to finish the job because he did not expect to be in this position.
"I know that I can be the first winner of a GT for Belgium in a long time, but we’ve still got six days to go so I don’t want to call myself that already," he said.
"For the head it’s best to just try to stay calm and look at the races day by day, see what everyday brings. As we saw last week, a crash happens before you even know it.
"We had two big passes, unfortunately Julian had to abandon the race, I was okay but there was still some damage to my hip and muscles, so that’s why we have to see day by day.
"Never panic, even if I lose a bit of time, because if I’d have known I was in this situation before the Vuelta, I would have signed up for it, so everything that happens now is extra.
"A stage win and a top 10, top five, would be my big dream. I think we’re on the road to that."
Young cyclists excel at Junior Caribbean Cycling Champs in Dom Rep
Jamaica's young cyclists Cajur Chue, Khalil Francis and Melaika Russell all registered credible performances during the recently-concluded two-day Junior Caribbean Cycling Championships in the Dominican Republic.
The three were among 56 athletes across 13 countries that participated in the championships, where Jamaica finished second on the medal table with three medals behind host nation which had nine medals. Puerto Rico completed the top three with two medals.
Chue, National Juvenile Time Trial champion, competed in the Juvenile Men 10km Individual Time Trial on the first day of action and claimed silver in 13 minutes and 29 seconds. He just missed out on top spot by 10 seconds, as he finished behind Puerto Rico’s Amauri Santiago (13min 19 sec), while Dominican Republic’s Emir David Nina Garcia (13mins 25sec) was third.
Jamaica's National women's Time Trial champion Russell was also in action on day one, as she competed in the Juvenile Women 10km individual Time Trial, where she also placed second in 16 minutes and 47 seconds. The event was won by Bermuda’s Charlotte Millington, with Barbadian Arielle Greaves taking third in a time of 17 minutes and 40 seconds.
Russell returned on the second day and won gold in the 60km Road Race for Juvenile Women, becoming the first Caribbean Road champion from Jamaica since Marloe
Rodman in 2015.
In the juvenile male 70km road race, Chue took an early solo breakaway and opened a 150 metres gap with 15km to go, but was unable to maintain that tempo and got
caught. Both Chue and Francis missed out on the podium, as they placed sixth and 10th respectively.
On this day in 2018: Simon Yates seals British Grand Tours treble at La Vuelta
Simon Yates sealed victory in La Vuelta on this day in 2018 to complete a British clean sweep of the year’s Grand Tours.
The 26-year-old Bury racer headed into the largely processional final stage into Madrid with a one minute and 46 seconds lead and avoided any late mishaps to land his first Grand Tour title.
Yates’ success followed that of Chris Froome at the Giro d’Italia and Geraint Thomas at the Tour de France to round off an unprecedented year for British cycling.
The three titles had never before been held by three riders from the same country.
Yates said: “It’s astonishing really. Growing up I was so accustomed to seeing the French, Italian and Spanish riders lead the way, so for myself, Chris and Geraint to all win a Grand Tour in the same year just shows how far the sport has come in this country.”
Froome, whose Tour-Vuelta double in 2017 meant British riders had at that point won five Grand Tours in a row, paid tribute to Yates’ achievement, saying: “Simon has looked so strong over the last three weeks and it’s great to see him take home the maillot rojo. It’s been a perfect year for British riders.”
On this day 2016: Kadeena Cox makes history with cycling gold at Rio Paralympics
Kadeena Cox won C4/C5 500 metres time-trial gold in Rio on this day in 2016 to become the first Briton in 28 years to secure medals in two sports at the same Paralympics.
The then-25-year-old’s velodrome triumph saw her emulate Isabel Barr’s Seoul 1988 success as she added to the T38 100m bronze she had claimed on the athletics track.
Cox was tearful on the podium, recalling her two-year journey from stroke symptoms in May 2014 which were later diagnosed as MS, a progressive disease which made her determined to compete in two sports in Rio.
“I’m just so happy that I’ve finally done it and I’ve got so far – this time two years ago I was at home, about to go into hospital to get my MS diagnosis,” she said.
“To have come this far in such a short period of time is just a relief. I’m glad that I’ve done it.
“A lot of people thought I wouldn’t be able to and there were moments when I doubted myself.
“But I knew when the classification got changed, it was going to be the point where I worked my hardest.
“I absolutely dug in and gave it everything.
“I knew on my day I’d be good enough to beat anyone and I’ve done it.”
World champion Cox won the C4/C5 500 metres time-trial gold in a world record of 35.716 seconds.
The event was factored in her favour, so her time was rounded down to 34.598secs, but she was quicker than everyone else regardless.
Cox went on to seal athletics gold with victory in the T38 400m final to make it a treble of medals in Rio and won two further cycling golds at the Tokyo Paralympics in 2021.
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