{"id":9153,"date":"2026-02-09T10:17:04","date_gmt":"2026-02-09T09:17:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/uk\/?p=9153"},"modified":"2026-02-18T10:20:25","modified_gmt":"2026-02-18T09:20:25","slug":"evenepoel-easily-wins-volta-a-la-comunitat-valenciana-as-programmed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.welovecycling.com\/uk\/2026\/02\/09\/evenepoel-easily-wins-volta-a-la-comunitat-valenciana-as-programmed\/","title":{"rendered":"Evenepoel Easily Wins Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana, as Programmed"},"content":{"rendered":"

There really was never any doubt that Remco Evenepoel would win the five-stage Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana, even after the stage 2 ITT was neutralised because of high winds \u2013 it was run, but the times were not included in the GC calculation. One reason was that the race suited his Classics skills. All of the ascents were short, including the two most difficult: the Alto Miserad (5.4 km @ 9.7%, with double-digit ramps at the top) on stage 4 and the Port del Garb\u00ed (5.1 km @ 7.1%, with ramps over 13% at the bottom) on stage 5.<\/strong><\/p>\n

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The programme<\/strong><\/h2>\n

In addition, his new team, Red Bull\u2013BORA\u2013hansgrohe, is creating a new narrative for the three-time world time trial champion. The film is called \u201cThe Winner\u201d and seems to be about a rider who has forgotten how to lose. Evenepoel won his first three races of the year and now has a record of six wins out of eight races. (Even Red Bull knows that you can\u2019t win them all.) That\u2019s quite a contrast to the way Evenepoel began his previous seasons, when he rode for Soudal Quick-Step and recorded more losses than wins.<\/p>\n

In addition, he is scheduled this year to ride only three spring one-day races, the three Ardennes Classics, in which Tadej Poga\u010dar is so far not scheduled to appear and where his main rival may be Thibau Nys (Lidl-Trek) \u2013 though Mathieu van der Poel\u2019s programme has not yet been made public by Alpecin\u2013Premier Tech. Clearly, the team wants Evenepoel to come into the Tour de France feeling invincible. Maybe it will work.<\/p>\n

However, he has built his record against riders he was expected to beat, even Jo\u00e3o Almeida (UAE Team Emirates\u2013XRG), who had not raced this year before the Valenciana, who is not a Classics rider and whose skill set is tailored to much longer ascents. He finished second in the GC, 31 seconds behind Evenepoel, whose promising young teammate Giulio Pellizzari finished third, at 34 seconds.<\/p>\n

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A post shared by VCV – Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana (@vueltacv)<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n