Back at his best! Dominant Evenepoel wins final time trial in Romandie, Almeida takes overall victory

After Martinez's impressive victory in the fourth stage, it was clear that Sunday's final time trial would be nail-biting. With his stage victory, the young Martinez took the lead in the GC, but Lorenzo Fortunato and João Almeida were hot on his heels.

The Italian from XDS-Astana was two seconds behind the Frenchman, while the Portuguese favorite from UAE Team Emirates-XRG was third, three seconds behind Martinez. With Jay Vine, Junior Lecerf, and Carlos Rodríguez still within a minute, we were in for an exciting battle on Sunday.

Johan Price-Pejtersen was the first rider to get underway. The Dane from Alpecin-Deceuninck set a great time of 21 minutes and 11 seconds, which would be an excellent target time for the early starters. For example, time trial specialists Rémi Cavagna and Stefan Küng missed the mark, but that was not the case for Thibault Guernalec.

The Frenchman from Arkéa-B&B Hotels beat Price-Pejtersen's time by five seconds and took his place in the hot seat. How long he would stay there was anyone's guess, as Alberto Bettiol was twelve seconds under the best time so far (Küng's time) at the halfway point. The Italian didn't slow down and jumped into the hot seat with a fantastic time of 20 minutes and 51 seconds, fifteen seconds faster than Guernalec.

Raúl García Pierna proved to be a second faster than Guernalec, but that meant he was nowhere near Bettiol's spectacular time. Iván Romeo, who became world time trial champion in the U23 category in Zurich last year, also failed to get close to the Italian from XDS-Astana. The young Spaniard worked his way up to a virtual eighth place.

The question was whether anyone could beat Bettiol's impressive time. The main contenders were Evenepoel, Almeida, and his teammate Jay Vine. Russia's Aleksandr Vlasov came close, but he, too, was nine seconds behind the Italian. This put the Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe rider in virtual second place, while young Jørgen Nordhagen showed his versatility with a virtual tenth place.

At the halfway point, Evenepoel crushed Bettiol's time. The double Olympic champion was eleven seconds faster than the Italian and seemed on his way to an impressive victory in Romandy. Evenepoel continued his good time trial and was no less than eighteen seconds faster than Bettiol at the finish, making victory as good as sure for the world time trial champion.

With the other leaders still on the road, it was set to be an exciting finish. Would Evenepoel's time be enough for the stage win? How well could Martinez defend his minimal lead? How high would Evenepoel move up the GC with his top time? And would top favorite Almeida claim the overall victory?

Around 4 PM local time, the answers started to trickle in. Evenepoel won the time trial and ultimately finished fifth in the GC. The winner of the GC was Almeida after the Portuguese rider finished second in the day's time trial with a solid performance. Martinez also rode a very strong time trial, finishing second in the GC. Vine ended up third in the GC.