Pogacar dominates climbing time trial: Vingegaard finishes second, Evenepoel loses a lot of time

We haven't had a climbing time trial for a while. The last real time trial uphill was to La Planche des Belle Filles, where Tadej Pogacar won his first Tour de France with a superhuman performance. And after his amazing ride to Hautacam, the world champion will once again be the top favorite to claim victory at the famous airport.

Pogacar rode a great final climb on Thursday, which was reason enough for the Tour organizers to extend the time limit for the climbing time trial. It was increased from 33% to 40%, so the early starters probably had nothing to fear. But when riders such as Luka Mezgec (Jayco-AlUla) and Tim Merlier (Soudal Quick-Step) took almost 31.30 minutes, it looked like it might be an exciting finish after all. Luke Plapp (Jayco-AlUla) was the first to set a real target time, and he was already almost 7 minutes faster.

If Pogacar could beat that time by almost 3 minutes, those guys would be in danger. Plapp's time stayed on the board for a while. Lenny Martinez (Bahrain Victorious) came close, but in the polka dot jersey, he collapsed in the steep final kilometer. It was time to wait for the next top climbers. There were plenty of them: Michael Storer (Tudor), Michael Woods (Israel - Premier Tech), Einer Rubio (Movistar), Valentin Paret-Peintre (Soudal Quick-Step)... All of them are excellent climbers, but no match for the Australian time trial champion.

Climbers such as Adam Yates (UAE Team Emirates - XRG) and Santiago Buitrago (Bahrain Victorious) came pretty close: the British rider finished 17 seconds behind Plapp. Meanwhile, Matteo Jorgenson had started, which meant that the top 10 in the GC were up next. Could they get close to the Jayco climber's time? We would have to wait for the first intermediate times.

Jorgenson did well, but after his strong intermediate time, he still lost ground to Plapp. The Visma | Lease a Bike climber finished just four seconds behind the powerful Australian, but Roglic was flying. Halfway up the climb, he was already half a minute faster than the Australian, and at the finish line, the Slovenian from Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe added even more to his lead: he was 37 seconds faster. Teammate Florian Lipowitz was also well on his way.

Remco Evenepoel set the best time at the first checkpoint, but that's when the climb really starts. Jonas Vingegaard was 3 seconds behind the Belgian, but Pogacar, without a time trial helmet or handlebars, was 4 seconds faster than the Olympic time trial champion. It was a sign of things to come. Vingegaard climbed well, but not as well as the Slovenian.

Halfway up the climb, Vingegaard was 29 seconds behind Roglic and no less than 50 seconds behind Evenepoel, who was visibly suffering. The white jersey wearer seemed to be paying for his fast start, and he also had to deal with technical problems along the way: his chain came off for a moment, but he managed to fix it while riding. Pogacar, in turn, was 23 seconds faster than Vingegaard: once again, the differences at the front of the race were significant.

Evenepoel was suffering: Vingegaard saw him in the final stretch. The Belgian lost a lot of time, as well as his third place to Lipowitz, who had set the second fastest time. Evenepoel was overtaken just before the finish line by the Dane, who was 44 seconds faster than Roglic. Evenepoel finished in 11th place and just managed to hold on to third place. However, Pogacar went on to beat Vingegaard's time by 37 seconds—another blow.