'Mission accomplished': Remco Evenepoel cements Tour de France podium spot

The Fauvists, the wild beasts of fin de siècle French art, were known for bold colours and their willingness to use rough brush strokes, a break with the established impressionist norms. 

Although not part of the official group, which only existed for a few years in the first decade of the 20th century, the French-Belgian painter Henri Evenepoel preceded this movement with his own use of colours, which marked him as different.

Over 120 years after his death, his namesake Remco Evenepoel is aping his brave artwork by fighting on at this Tour de France, extending his cushion in third place, and even dropping Jonas Vingegaard and Tadej Pogačar, the two riders seemingly on another plane to everyone else in the world right now.

With all eyes on the endless battle between the UAE Team Emirates rider and his Visma-Lease a Bike rival, Evenepoel has been quietly - and occasionally very loudly - riding impressively to third place at the Tour. The Soudal Quick-Step rider sits in third, as he has since stage 14, by an impressive margin of over seven minutes from fourth-placed João Almeida. Tours have been won by a lot less. He is also in the white jersey by eight minutes. It's some debut Tour, and if it wasn't for the Pogačar and Vingegaard show, it would be comprehensively his race.

Stage 17 was a perfect example of how Evenepoel is on a level above his rivals for the final podium place. While UAE Team Emirates' Almeida and Carlos Rodríguez of Ineos Grenadiers lost over two minutes on Wednesday, the Belgian gained 12 seconds on Pogačar and Vingegaard.

"I did a recon of this course so I knew how everything looked like," the Belgian explained post-stage. "I knew the climbs were pretty steep. It looked like it was going to be an easy finish for the GC favourites, but in the end, a little trick, fire it up. Tadej attacked 1.5km from the top of the penultimate climb, my legs were pretty good to react. Maybe I reacted a little bit too late again, and I was not on the wheel, but we came back on the descent, so that was good. I had a very strong Jan Hirt in the front group, that waited for me. I jumped towards him, and he dropped me off with 1km to go and I went all in. 

"It showed that we were tactically strong today, the whole team was very good today. The first part with the crosswinds, we were always in the front, we had someone in the break, and then my legs were pretty good as well, so I'm satisfied with today's stage."

He should be more than satisfied with his performance, one which saw him all-but guarantee his presence on the podium in Nice, incidentally where Henri Evenepoel was from. It would take a monumental collapse for things to go pear-shaped from here.

Evenepoel - Remco, that is - played down the suggestion that he was catching up with Vingegaard, but he is less than two minutes behind.

"It's not that much time," he said of the gains on stage 17. "My main goal is not to drop those guys, or to take as much time on them, my goal is to take as much time on the guys behind me. That mission was pretty much accomplished. I have to be happy with where I am, with the feeling, and I hope I can keep this level up, because I'll need it on stage 19 and 20. I think for now, we can be super happy with what we've done today.

"I think we have to stay focused on our main goal, and that's the podium spot. I think what I did today was perfect, I was up there with the two best GC riders in the world. I could drop them for a bit on that last climb, and in the end, I'm a bit stronger in third. For the moment we're doing very well, the whole team is very motivated. Everything is working well, and I hope it keeps going like this for another three days, and then it's all by myself in the TT."

The time trial, and the end of three weeks, could still be critical. Evenepoel, the world champion, will be coming up against two of the best riders ever at hilly TTs, in Vingegaard and Evenepoel. He won the first time trial at this year's race, putting time into all his rivals, but this one comes after 20 days of racing, and, more pertinently, two mountain-top finishes.

"There are still quite some mountains to go," Evenepoel said. "An off day can always be there, but I think how everything is looking right now, I'm not going to have an off day. I'm confident, but feet on the ground and keep working."

In this age of special, generational, talents, it should not be overlooked that Evenepoel is a 24-year-old, a two-time world champion, riding his first Tour de France, and all but definitely making the podium. If his bold riding continues, he might just sneak up a place too, and make the Fauvists proud too.