Evenepoel loses more time, but surprises with confident bluff about yellow jersey after Tour de France time trial

Evenepoel lost 39 seconds in the crosswind echelons on day one, saw Pogacar and Vingegaard grab 6 and 4 bonus seconds respectively on day two, and on top of a three-second gap in stage four, Pogacar and Vingegaard collected another 10 and 4 bonus seconds. Evenepoel crossed the line alongside Matteo Jorgenson in seventh, three seconds back, and is now 58 seconds behind Mathieu van der Poel and Pogacar in the general classification.

Being nearly a minute down after just four days of the Tour isn’t what Evenepoel would have hoped for. The fact that he had to let the front group go in the final corners of a brutal finale said something about fatigue. But: “It was twenty kilometers of constant twists and turns. It was very hectic, but it went well. The team was strong. At the end, I felt a bit of lactic acid and it hurt, but overall I’m happy with how I felt today,” he told VTM.

His time loss may have come from an attack in the finale, using up some precious energy. “I was always well positioned at the front, the team did a great job. At the end, I tried a small attack, but maybe it was unnecessary. I wanted to see how the others would react, but maybe I should have saved it for the sprint,” he told Sporza. “This doesn’t say much about the longer climbs, I think. These are different races,” added team director Tom Steels.

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In Wednesday’s stage 5 time trial, covering 33 kilometers, Evenepoel hopes to claw back time on his rivals. As the world and Olympic time trial champion, he was already 20 seconds faster than Vingegaard in a time trial half this distance at the Critérium du Dauphiné. Pogacar even lost three-quarters of a minute there. Clearly, a minute doesn’t scare him. “The gap to the yellow jersey is 58 seconds, so the yellow dream is possible,” he said confidently, even bluffing a bit.

Still, Evenepoel will need an extraordinary day to take back a full minute from Vingegaard and company, despite his time trial prowess. His preparation hasn’t been ideal. “I haven’t been able to recon the time trial due to my injury, so a lot of recons didn’t happen. But Koen (coach Pelgrim, ed.) has a video of the course, and I’ll study that well. Plus, I’ll do an extra recon tomorrow,” said the clear favorite for at least the stage win.

Could he take the yellow? Steels replied: “He’s very determined for this time trial. It’s his specialty, and the course suits him. He’s heading into it with full confidence.”

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The three-second time loss for Evenepoel was acceptable, but seeing several teammates hit the deck could hurt The Wolfpack more in the long run. First, Ilan Van Wilder crashed, and later Mattia Cattaneo and Valentin Paret-Peintre also went down. “That crash from Cattaneo is quite annoying; he’s my most important bodyguard for the entire Tour. He looked pretty banged up, but tomorrow he can have a relatively easy day, and then we’ll see with the doctor how things go from there. I’ll definitely need him in the next two weeks,” said the team leader.