Friday’s first of two time trials in the 111th Tour de France was epic, with Tadej Pogačar, Remco Evenepoel, Jonas Vingegaard and Primož Roglič showing why the Big Four Summit is a reality in this year’s race. In his Tour debut Evenepoel earned his first win, beating yellow jersey Pogačar by 12 seconds and putting time into third place Vingegaard. Derek Gee moved up seven places on GC to 14th by taking 14th in his first Tour time trial.
The Top of the GC Overnight
Many reckoned that yellow jersey Pogačar would lose time to both world time trial champion Remco Evenepoel and Jonas Vingegaard.
Tadej Pogačar (Slovenia/UAE-Emirates) 26:47:19
Remco Evenepoel (Belgium/Soudal-QuickStep) +0:45
Jonas Vingegaard (Denmark/Visma-Lease a Bike) +0:50
Juan Ayuso (Spain/UAE-Emirates) +1:10
Primož Roglič (Slovenia/Red Bull) +1:14
The Course
Nuits-Saint-Georges to Gevrey-Chambertin was 25.3 km long and contained a hill in its middle. There were time checks at Kilometres 8.6, 14.4 and 19.9.
🏁 RACE DETAILS ⤵️
🇫🇷 Tour de France
🔢 Stage 7 (TT)
⏰ 13:05 CEST
↔️ 25.3km
#⃣ #TdF2024 pic.twitter.com/ZOIzbpsWcX— GreenEDGE Cycling (@GreenEDGEteam) July 5, 2024
By the time Wout van Aert started, Kévin Vauquelin was in the hot seat after posting 29:44. Belgian Victor Campenaerts took over the hot seat, as he was 0.76 seconds faster than the Frenchman. Stefan Küng was going great guns on the course, but a late mechanical put the kibosh on his ride. When Hugo Houle came in, he was provisional 31st.
Derek Gee was in 21st at the start of the day. His buffer back to 22nd was 47 seconds and there were five fellows ahead of him by seven seconds. He set the fifth best provisional time at Time Check 1 and fourth at Time Check 2. Gee was provisional seventh after he crossed the line.
It was time for the heavy hitters.
Roglič, Vingegaard, Evenepoel and the yellow jersey were all on great runs. First Roglič set the best time at Check 1, then Vingegaard cracked it by 10 seconds. Evenepoel in turn was 11 seconds faster than the Dane. The Slovenian was three seconds slower than the Belgian.
Time Check 2: Roglič 18:51, Vingegaard 18:36, Evenepoel 18:13, Pogačar 18:23.
Time Check 3: Roglič 23:37, Vingegaard 23:33, Evenepoel 23:05, Pogačar 23:11.
Roglič removed Campenaerts from the hot seat and Ayuso from fourth place with 29:26. Evenepoel was disrupted by a…
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