Remco Evenepoel (Soudal Quick-Step) powered to victory in the time trial on stage seven of the Tour de France, as Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) held onto the race lead.
The pair put time into the other members of the 'big four', Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) and Primož Roglič (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe).
Evenepoel averaged over 52km/h - 52.373km/h - on the 23.4km course to take his debut Tour stage, which also means he has completed the set of Grand Tour stage wins. He won by 12 seconds from Pogačar, and 34 seconds from third-placed Roglič. Vingegaard was a further three seconds behind.
The Belgian winner, the world time trial champion, and Pogačar were the only riders to average over 52km/h, on a time trial which also featured 283 metres of climbing.
"It’s crazy," Evenepoel said. "I was on a good day, the climb was pretty tough. I wanted to start fast, and I had to keep something for the climb which wasn’t easy. The descent, when you’re on the limit, it was pretty technical and fast. I enjoyed every metre of this TT, and coming out with this win is simply amazing. I’m very happy."
One moment of potential misfortune came with about 2km to go for Evenepoel, when he appeared to have a mechanical issue. The 24-year-old bounced his tyre on the road, but did not need to change bike.
"I was pretty sure I had a puncture actually, maybe someone dropped some glass, it made exactly the same sound like a puncture, so I was a bit scared," he explained. "But after a few hundred metres further I knew nothing was wrong, so I had to keep going, with a bit of scaredness [sic] in my head. I thought it was a slow puncture maybe. I wasn’t too sure in the last corners, but I had to take risks because I knew Tadej was close to me. 13 seconds is amazing. It was a close one, but I just wanted to win today. So I’m very proud."
Evenepoel now sits 33 seconds behind Pogačar on general classification, and 42 seconds ahead of Vingegaard. Other changes on GC came from Juan Ayuso (UAE Team Emirates) losing time, while his teammate João Almeida, a time trial specialist, gained seconds. Carlos Rodríguez (Ineos Grenadiers) and Mikel Landa (Soudal Quick-Step) also slipped places.
The first of the non-GC men on the day was Victor Campenaerts (Lotto Dsnty), who spent almost two hours in the hot seat, and came fifth, but 52 seconds behind the winner.
"We weren’t really thinking about the time gaps on GC, we just wanted to take the win," Evenepoel said. "That’s done, so a perfect day for me and my team. Took some time on the others, so mission accomplished, so now we have to focus on tomorrow and Sunday.
"Tadej is going to be pretty unreachable, but it’s racing, you never know what will happen. The more into the race I go, the better I’ll feel. We’ll focus more on the podium probably, and we just have to go for it and enjoy this Tour."
How it happened
First down the ramp was Mark Cavendish (Astana-Qazaqstan), who despite winning a stage on Wednesday, was last overall on general classification. The Manxman set a time of 33.21,52, which was quickly overtaken by his teammate, Michael Mørkøv.
An early solid time was set by Lenny Martinez (Groupama-FDJ), who was the first rider to go under 32 minutes, in 31.40,84.
This wasn’t bettered until Luke Durbridge (Jayco AlUla), who went over 20 seconds faster. Next in the hot seat was Nils Politt (UAE Team Emirates), but his stay was short, as he was soon bettered by Stefan Bissegger (EF Education-EasyPost), in 30.06,66.
However, Kévin Vaquelin (Arkéa-B&B Hotels) went faster again, the stage two winner being the first rider under half an hour on the 25.3km course - 29.44,94, in fact.
Victor Campernaerts (Lotto Dstny) looked fast throughout, but managed to beat Vaquelin’s time just by 0.76 of a second, pushing it all the way.
Stefan Küng (Groupama-FDJ) was very much set to post a new best time, but a mechanical mid-race saw him replacing his chain as he cycled, going from being in the green to the red. He came agonisingly short of setting a new best time.
Wout van Aert (Visma-Lease a Bike), a rider who has won a time trial at the Tour before, looked on for a good time early on, but finished a minute down on Campenaerts.
Campenaerts time stood for a long time; he briefly looked threatened by Ben Healy (EF Education-EasyPost), but the Irish rider came home seven seconds behind the Belgian.
The top ten on general classification were led in by Egan Bernal (Ineos Grenadiers), with the road preparing for a fight between Remco Evenepoel (Soudal Quick-Step), Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike), Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) and Primož Roglič (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe).
At the first timecheck, it was Evenepoel who was fastest, three seconds ahead of Pogačar, who himself was eight seconds ahead of Vingegaard. Roglič was 20 seconds behind Evenepoel, the world champion.
Roglič then went fastest at the second time check, but Vingegaard went 14 seconds ahead of this on the climb. Evenepoel was a huge 23 seconds ahead of the Dane, with all the climbing out of the way. That left just Pogačar to crest the day’s hill, who was 10 seconds behind his Belgian rival.
At the third, and final, time check, once again Vingegaard went faster than Roglič, but the gap had narrowed. Evenepoel was almost 30 seconds up on Vingegaard, and six seconds ahead of Pogačar.
Roglič took over the race lead, going 17 seconds from Campenaerts, who had been in the hot seat for a couple of hours. After a long battle, Vingegaard was three seconds behind this time.
Evenepoel looked in trouble with less than 2km to go, with his gears appearing to not work properly, but the issue was over quickly. He later explained he thought he had a puncture.
The Belgian world champion set the fastest time by over half a minute, and then the wait for Pogačar began. The UAE Team Emirates rider lost just a handful of seconds to Evenepoel in the end, 12 in total.
Results
Tour de France 2024, Stage 7: Nuits-Saint-Georges > Gevrey-Chambertin, 25.3km (ITT)
1. Remco Evenepoel (Bel) Soudal Quick-Step, in 28:52
2. Tadej Pogačar (Slo) UAE Team Emirates, +12s
3. Primož Roglič (Slo) Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe, +34s
4. Jonas Vingegaard (Den) Visma-Lease a Bike, +37s
5. Victor Campenaerts (Bel) Lotto Dstny, +52s
6. Kévin Vaquelin (Fra) Arkéa-B&B Hotels, at same time
7. Matteo Jorgenson (USA) Visma-Lease a Bike, +54s
8. João Almeida (Por) UAE Team Emirates, +57s
9. Ben Healy (Ire) EF Education-EasyPost, +59s
10. Stefan Küng (Sui) Groupama-FDJ, +1:00
General classification after stage 7
1. Tadej Pogačar (Slo) UAE Team Emirates, in 27:16:23
2. Remco Evenepoel (Bel) Soudal Quick-Step, +33s
3. Jonas Vingegaard (Den) Visma-Lease a Bike, +1:15
4. Primož Roglič (Slo) Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe, +1:36
5. Juan Ayuso (Esp) UAE Team Emirates, +2:16
6. João Almeida (Por) UAE Team Emirates, +2:17
7. Carlos Rodríguez (Esp) Ineos Grenadiers, +2:31
8. Mikel Landa (Esp) Soudal-Quick Step, +3:35
9. Matteo Jorgenson (USA) Visma-Lease a Bike, +4:03
10. Aleksandr Vlasov (Rus) Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe, +4:36
