Remco Evenepoel enjoyed a relatively quiet but still emotional debut as a professional rider with the Deceuninck-QuickStep team on the opening stage of the Vuelta a San Juan.
The 19-year-old Belgian prodigy impressed his teammates and even Peter Sagan by avoiding an early crash and trying his hand in some echelons and attacks before becoming part of the team's lead-out that tried to set up sprinter Alvaro Hodeg. Sagan noticed that he was well placed at the front of the peloton when the speed rose and echelons briefly threatened to split the race.
Hodeg finished fifth, several bike lengths behind winner and former Quick-Step rider Fernando Gaviria, with Evenepoel 34th in the peloton. The youngster was still interviewed by Belgian television channel Sporza and the Flemish newspapers, who are at the Vuelta a San Juan largely to follow the 19-year-old as he makes his professional debut after jumping directly from the junior ranks and his two world titles in Innsbruck last September.
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"I expected it to be harder and to suffer more with the high speed in the final kilometres but it actually turned out really well, I was up there with the team. I did what I could, I did my best," Evenepoel told Cyclingnews post-stage, where his biggest concern was the worsening sunburn on his arms after almost four hours and 159km under the South American sun, in temperatures that touched 38C.
"I didn’t crash and so that’s a success for me. I had a difficult moment early on but I avoided crashing by making a weird move. I was also in the echelons a little bit later on. I’m happy; the racing was actually more relaxed than with the juniors I’ve raced against.
"I rode in the first 20 all day. I think Sagan must have seen that too because he made me a compliment. That is motivating for the next few days."
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via Cyclingnews Latest Interviews and Features http://www.cyclingnews.com/features/remco-evenepoel-impresses-on-pro-debut-at-vuelta-a-san-juan
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