Pre-Tour de France national time trial results good news for Tadej Pogačar, bad news for everyone else

Who will be wearing the national champion’s jersey in the time trials at the Tour de France? After the first European champions were crowned on Wednesday, a host of big names competed in the time trials on Thursday. On Friday, too, the stopwatches were set in motion in various countries. The rides of two particular men caught the eye. Two men who will be crucial to a successful start to Tadaj Pogačar's 5th Tour de France win.

In Germany, racing resumed early on Friday, despite the heat. Among the women, Franziska Koch was the best, once again showcasing her super legs from 2026 for FDJ United-SUEZ. She was faster than Antonio Niedermaier of Canyon//SRAM.

In the men's race, the title went to Nils Politt, his third time following titles in 2023 and 2024. The peloton ahead of the Tour de France will already sense what is coming, as Politt showed top form on Friday. at the Tour, he will put the peloton through the wringer again, in the service of Tadej Pogacar and UAE Emirates-XRG.

In Belgium, a surprising winner emerged in the women's race. Lotte Claes crowned herself time trial champion representing Fenix-Premier Tech. Lotte Kopecky, the big favorite who had already won the championship seven times, could only manage fourth for SD Worx-Protime.

In the men's race in Belgium—in the absence of Remco Evenepoel—the title went to Alec Segaert, who thereby gave a dream season a fitting continuation. He had already won the GP de Denain this year and recorded a magnificent stage victory in the Giro d'Italia in May following a late attack.

The Bahrain Victorious rider was 6 seconds faster than Tim Wellens on Friday on a shortened course (due to the heat), who thus also left an excellent impression for UAE heading into the Tour de France. Teammate Vlad Van Mechelen surprisingly finished third in the Belgian Time Trial Championship.

Despite Wellens 2nd place, the UAE big man is still clearly in good shape ahead of the Tour de France. Another engine who will work on the flat for Pogačar, that he and Politt are in good shape ahead of the opening team time trial in Barcelona will be worrying for the rest of peloton.

And as more and more bad news comes out of the Visma | Lease a Bike camp, it is likely that Pogačar's team will go extra hard in the opening team time trial to try set significant time gaps early. Visma confirmed late on Saturday night that time trial specialist Edoardo Affini is out of the team due to injuries sustained in a 70kph crash at the Italian National Championships. Affini will be replace by Bart Lemmen, who is not a time trial champion.

What effect this will have on Visma's overall success at this Tour de France is yet to be seen, but you can imagine that Pogačar, Politt, and Wellens, are all licking their lips.

Besides Germany and Belgium, time trials were also held in Denmark on Friday. Kristian Egholm, from the Lidl-Trek development team, somewhat surprisingly claimed the title there, with a narrow margin of less than a second over Mikkel Bjerg (also from UAE). Sif Nikoline Bendix Madsen won the women's race.

In Portugal, UAE Emirates-XRG celebrated again, with Antonio Morgado taking the time trial title. Teammate Ivo Oliveira finished third. Finally, Slovenia, where Tadej Pogačar did not participate, but crowd favorite Primoz Roglic did. The Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe rider hit the mark. He convincingly beat Roman Ermakov and Jakob Omrzel of Bahrain Victorious.