Pogacar crushes Vingegaard in Tour de France time trial and takes yellow from Van der Poel, Evenepoel dominates

The pancake flat roads around Caen were a perfect course for the true time trial specialists. This would be their only real chance, as the upcoming time trial to Peyragudes would suit the climbers more. Many riders had ambitions today, including the general classification contenders: this was the first day where big differences could really be made. All eyes were therefore on Remco Evenepoel.

The first benchmark time was set by Iván Romeo. The young Movistar rider was faster than his teammate Pablo Castrillo and Luke Plapp (Jayco-AlUla), but his time was soon crushed by Edoardo Affini. The European champion was no less than 30 seconds faster than the under-23 world time trial champion over the 33-kilometer course and seemed set to remain in the hot seat for a long time.

But it was close, Bruno Armirail almost pulled it off. The French time trial champion had been very active in the early breakaways during the first days, but he had made the time trial a major goal. Along the way, he seemed much slower, but his 18-second deficit melted away like snow in the sun. At the finish, he came up just 2 seconds short of dethroning the Italian from Visma | Lease a Bike, who breathed a sigh of relief.

Almost a surprise, then, but after that, new top times didn't appear for a long time. Riders like Tobias Foss (INEOS Grenadiers) and Kasper Asgreen (EF Education - EasyPost) didn’t come close. Victor Campenaerts (Visma | Lease a Bike) is in top form, but treated it as a training ride and was one of the slowest on the course. Teammate and compatriot Wout van Aert took the same approach, clocking the 71st fastest time up to that point.

It was a waiting game for the general classification fireworks. It started with Florian Lipowitz, who was the 20th rider in the GC to open the arena. The German rode an excellent time trial, finishing with the third fastest time, just 25 seconds slower than the European champion. His team leader Primoz Roglic couldn’t keep up with him, as the Slovenian recorded the 7th fastest time, 46 seconds behind his former teammate. That also meant he lost 21 seconds to his own teammate.

When Mathieu van der Poel started, everyone was waiting for the first intermediate times from the big guns. Remco Evenepoel was the first to come through: he was 2 seconds slower than Plapp, but the wind had shifted to a headwind. It seemed worse than it actually was, because Jonas Vingegaard (7th intermediate time) and Tadej Pogacar (3rd intermediate time) also struggled. However, the Slovenian did manage to take 19 seconds from his closest rival after just under 9 kilometers of riding.

Mathieu van der Poel set the 14th fastest time and had already lost the yellow jersey by the first intermediate checkpoint. Further along the course, it became clear that Evenepoel had paced himself perfectly: he was already faster than Affini halfway through and recorded the fastest time at the finish, a full 33 seconds quicker than the Italian. His rivals lost a lot of time – an enormous amount – to the Belgian aero-bullet.

Kévin Vauquelin rode a great time trial and finished 4th, but Vingegaard lost more and more as his ride progressed. The Dane was already 45 seconds behind Evenepoel halfway through, and at the finish, it was even 1 minute 21 seconds. Visma | Lease a Bike generally disappointed, with Jorgenson crossing the line with the 10th fastest time, 1 minute 19 behind Evenepoel, just 2 seconds faster than his team leader.

Pogacar did better but couldn’t match the power of the Olympic champion. He finished with the second-best time, 16 seconds behind Evenepoel. Van der Poel finished 18th, losing the yellow jersey to the Slovenian, but the UAE Team Emirates-XRG leader will be especially pleased with the time he gained on arch-nemesis Vingegaard: at the finish, he was a full 1 minute 5 seconds faster than the Visma leader.