It wasn't supposed to be like this. Thirty kilometers from the finish of stage 5 of the Vuelta a San Juan in Alto Colorado on Friday, Remco Evenepoel (Detunink-Quick Step) and Oscar Sevilla (Team Medellin) were in the second group, more than a minute behind the dangerous pack.23 The two boys, fighting for the overall by an age difference, were now united in despair. The ageless one, his face contorted into a grimace, looked his age. The younger one, pursing his lips in frustration, revealed his inexperience.

And yet, and yet. Like Mathieu Van Der Pol, who ran a phenomenal race in last year's Amstel Gold Race, Evenpoel's outstanding strength seemed to be enough to stretch the occasional wrinkle in his racing technique. Perhaps it was a youthful mistake that caught up with him when the echelon formed with 40km to go. Only Dečuninck-Quick-Step teammate Pieter Serry rode with Evenpoel after the second group formed.

"I'm sorry for the lack of words, but I was like, 'Damn, I'm screwed,'" Evenpoel grinned when asked how he felt as the Vuelta a San Juan seemed to slip away from his grasp. That's life," he said. I had a very good team that helped me for a long time, but in the end I had to do it on my own. And luckily I was strong enough to close the gap.

With 20km to go, UAE Team Emirates and Bora Hansgrohe lead the pack, with Filippo Ganna (ITA), Brandon McNulty (UAE Team Emirates), Guillaume Martin (Cofidis), and Nelson Oliveira (Movistar) challenging. The gap to the lead group is 1 minute 18 seconds. In the overall standings, Gana was the de facto leader.

In his short and illustrious career, Evenpoel has made a habit of such breathless chases, winning the junior road race at the 2018 World Championships after a dramatic fightback. A year later, in the elite race in Yorkshire, he seemed enraged by the very notion of losing in a lonely attempt to bring crash victim Philippe Gilbert back to the peloton.

Here, just as the Vuelta a San Juan was about to slip from his grasp, Evenepoel suddenly tightened his grip. With allies such as Sevilla and Simon Perrault (Androni Sidermegg) occasionally increasing the pace, Evenepoel closed the gap over the 12km course and closed in on the lead group as the real climb to Alto Colorado began, with 8.5km to go, when contact occurred.

"I think we really helped each other to stay on the podium," Evenpoel said of Sevilla.

Most riders would have been satisfied with defending their overall lead, but the fact that he was disappointed to miss out on the stage win, having won more times than he has lost in his two years and ten months of competition, may indicate his boundless ambition, or perhaps his narrow range of emotions in cycling. It may be a reflection of Evenpoel's boundless ambition, or perhaps of his narrow emotional range in cycling. After the lead group was reduced to 10 riders, he accelerated twice on the steep gradient near the summit, but could only manage fifth place, four seconds behind the winner, Miguel Flores (Androni Sidermegg).

"Closing that gap cost me a lot of power," Flores said. It was my worst moment. But it didn't end badly, so I guess I can be happy."

With two flat stages to go, Evenepoel is now 33 seconds behind Ganna and 1:01 behind Sevilla in the overall standings. Davide Bramati, sport director of Deceuninck-Quick Step, expressed surprise and relief as he watched the revised overall standings on the screen in the press tent after the finish. If Evenpoel made a mistake of naivete in missing the split, he made up for it with a performance that underscored his remarkable maturity and physicality.

"He learned a big lesson," smiled Bramati.

Evenpoel described his positioning as "a mistake, but not a mistake. He and the Deceuninck-Quick Step team were leading the descent of the final climb of the Alto de la Crucesita, but after the road flattened out, they found themselves swarmed on both sides.

"The two Brazilians in front of me opened up a gap and I closed it. I panicked. I was in a good position and maybe I should have fought for position more, but I didn't want to crash."

Twelve months earlier, as a 19-year-old rookie, Evenepoel was lost on a lonely road that loomed over the sparse peaks of Alto Colorado after working on behalf of teammate Julian Alaphilippe. How did Evenepoel's run on Friday compare to last year's climb of Alto Colorado?

"Last year, after the effort we had today, we wouldn't have finished in the lead group. If I hadn't come back today with power, maybe I would have gone for the stage win," Evenpoel said. I think it's clear we're much stronger than last year."