Evenepoel: "the most perfect day ever"

Remco Evenepoel (Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl Team): "I think it’s a new achievement in my life. It was a pretty tough stage with really hard climbs in the finale, early attacks from UAE with Almeida… The race was really hard, but we always stayed calm. I think that’s what I learned, to always stay calm. It’s like in the last kilometre, we were still 15 or 20 seconds from Gesink and in the end we came to him at 300 metres and I went at 200, because I knew it was quite flat and in the winter I worked a lot on my sprint after big efforts, so it paid off. The goal is always to try and let the breakaway go, because like the the bonifications are gone. In the end, Klaas [Lodewyck, DS for Quick Step] said that I was gone with Enric [Mas] so that’s the moment I told myself: 'now you go for the stage win as well.' Winning atop a mountain with the red jersey is amazing. Enric is a really fair play guy. In the end we worked together to go for the stage win. This was the most perfect day ever. Winning La Vuelta is still not done with a really hard stage to come. They will for sure attack me. But maybe now it’s easier to control because I feel my legs are really good. This is very good for me and for the team for the last three days."