Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl (Spain) - Press Release: Our rider tightened his grip on the general classification after a flawless ride.

Remco Evenepoel produced one of the fastest individual time trials in Grand Tour history, ticking off his main objective of La Vuelta a España by taking a stage victory, which saw him become the first Belgian rider in the last 35 years to triumph in a stage against the clock at the Spanish race.

As the last man to roll down the start ramp, Remco knew what lay ahead, having trained in the morning on the course before following Rémi Cavagna from the car as the Frenchman rode a perfect race that put him in the hot seat with a time of 34:18. Starting his time trial some two hours after Rémi concluded his effort, Evenepoel easily found his rhythm and made a clear statement as soon as the first checkpoint, where he improved his teammate’s time by a whooping 21 seconds.

By the time he reached the halfway point of the 30.9km ITT between Elche and Alicante, the red jersey was already in pole position to take his maiden Grand Tour stage victory, and the 22-year-old continued to keep to tap out a ferocious tempo on his Specialized Shiv, gaining time on all the GC rivals despite some drops of rain falling on the road inside the last twenty minutes of his effort.

Photo credit: ©Justin Setterfield / Getty Images.