Evenepoel points out Vingegaard’s disadvantage compared to himself and Pogacar: “And Tadej’s Tour time trials are always better than his other ones”

Evenepoel is proud of his victory, he told the press conference for the written media in Caen. “But it’s not something I necessarily needed for my confidence. It mainly feels like revenge for Saturday, when both Tim Merlier and I didn’t start the Tour in the best way. I was very motivated to show what I can do and to give something back to my teammates.”

“In terms of strategy, we consciously chose a slower start because of the wind, which meant we were a bit behind at the first two time checks. After that, I was able to maintain the same power output in the second part, and that’s why we could gain back so much time in the second half,” Evenepoel explains his strategy.

“It does take some pressure off, and winning is always an extra motivation,” said the Belgian. Whether he’s now closer to Vingegaard when it comes to the final GC, Evenepoel didn’t want to say directly. “Grischa Niermann made the right analysis: Vingegaard is the lightest of the three of us, and in terms of absolute power, he had a disadvantage compared to me and Tadej. Whether he lost a lot of time or not, Jonas is mentally strong enough to get over this.”

“Pogacar already had a nice advantage over me before the time trial, and in that way it might ease the pain for him a bit,” said Evenepoel. “As for Tadej: we know that his time trials in the Tour are always a bit better than his other time trials during the year,” Evenepoel continued.

“I maybe expected to have a bit more of a gap over him, but he’s simply the best rider in the world and he always shows up when he needs to. That’s why he’s the man to beat in this Tour de France.”

Whether Pogacar will give away the yellow jersey, Evenepoel doesn’t know. “If I see him, I’ll ask him,” he said with a laugh. “The next two days are tough again, with punchy finishes. I’m not sure he’ll get the chance to give away the yellow, and I also don’t know if he has that mindset. I think he’s just going to ride his own race and won’t care much about it.”