Remco Evenepoel hoping for cooperation with Vuelta a España rivals to beat Jumbo-Visma trio

Defending Vuelta a España champion Remco Evenepoel (Soudal Quick-Step) has pointed towards cooperation with his rivals as a tactic to beat Jumbo-Visma at this year’s race.

Speaking on the first rest day, after a first week where the Dutch team have often dominated proceedings with their three-pronged approach of Primož Roglič, Jonas Vingegaard and race leader Sepp Kuss, Evenepoel theorised how his other rivals may become his biggest assets in the two weeks to come.

Few - if any - of the non-Jumbo GC contenders have had domestiques in the closing stages of this Vuelta’s hardest climbing days, and so it may be a question of rivals banding together to outmuscle the Dutch squad.

“I think about Mas and Ayuso and Almeida, guys like this, I think they can become very important in my upcoming two weeks,” Evenepoel said.

“Of course it’s always a bit more easy to work together than solve all the problems yourself. The Jumbo guys are three so we have to find a way how we can work somehow against them, even though it’s not easy because they’re all super strong.”

Evenepoel does not have to solve all the problems himself, but it’s no secret that his Soudal Quick-Step support squad, with James Knox and Mattia Cattaneo as his final mountain domestiques, is not as strong as the Jumbo team that contains a three-time Vuelta champion and the reigning Tour de France winner.

“Of course it’s not easy to ride against three strong climbers, good Grand Tour racers. For me it’s not an easy task to always come up with different plans to try and beat them, especially when they world well together like they’re doing now. But I think that’s something we knew already before the Vuelta so we have to deal with it and try to manage the situation in a good way.

“We’ll have to see day by day and then see how the ranking will be after tomorrow, and then also especially after stage 13 and 14,” he continued on the prospect of cooperation. “But I think it’s not a lie that it would be a good thing to try to work together.”

Whilst Evenepoel sees Jumbo-Visma as having three strong riders, he does not appear to rate current race leader Sepp Kuss as a true GC contender, despite the American currently sitting 2:22 clear of Evenepoel.

“Sepp is considered one of the best climbers in the world,” he said. “But we already saw him getting in some trouble on the last two mountain stages. So personally I consider him more as an outsider, especially from the Jumbo team. I think they will still go for Jonas and Primož.”

Despite not shying away from Jumbo’s strength, the Belgian was also hesitant to suggest that the likes of Primož Roglič or Jonas Vingegaard had any advantage on him going into the second week. Roglič has won one stage, as has Evenepoel, with the Slovenian and his Danish teammate able to ride away from Evenepoel on some of the hardest climbs.

However, thanks to time gained earlier in the race, Evenepoel still sits ahead of all his main GC rivals going into the stage 10 time trial.

“If you look at the top favourites for the moment, I’m first,” the Belgian pointed out. “So it’s still difficult to say who is above one another because we’re all really close to each other for the moment, and there have already been some difficult stages. So it’s difficult to really say one name [as a main threat].”

Tuesday’s 25.8km time trial around Valladolid should go some way to shaking out and redefining the general classification, so perhaps soon Evenepoel will be able to put a target on the rider he considers his biggest threat in the fight for red.

Head over to our Vuelta a España race page for all the latest news, results and tech from the Spanish Grand Tour.