History repeated itself for Remco Evenepoel on Sunday, as the Belgian crossed the finish line of the Tour de France Pyrenees stage in third place for the second time in 24 hours. Once again, he was outpaced by overall favourites Tadej Pogačar and Jonas Vingegaard — but even so, until the day’s climactic finish, Evenepoel never seemed to be in trouble. And with every pedal stroke, his podium position in the overall standings looked increasingly secure.

Evenepoel, who was three and a half minutes ahead of fourth-placed João Almeida (UAE Team Emirates) in the final big mountain test of stage 15, increased his advantage over the Portuguese by five minutes. And to round off a great day for Soudal-QuickStep, Remco’s key climbing assistant Mikel Landa finished the stage fourth and is now inside the top five on GC.