After 15 Tour de France stages, the deficit between yellow jersey and reigning champion Jonas Vingegaard and two-time winner Tadej Pogačar was only 10 seconds, but following Tuesday’s only time trial of the 110th edition, the gap was pried open by the Dane’s dominating performance. With four stages before Paris, the Jumbo-Visma rider has done a lot to make sure he defends his title this year. Hugo Houle was the top Canadian in 39th. All three Canadians kept their GC places.
The Course
After the start in Passy, a hill arrived quickly. Following a flat middle of the route, the final challenge was Côte de Domancy, 2.8 km à 8.4 percent. The full climb from the second intermediate time check to the finish was 6.3 km of 6.6 percent. Some riders were changing their bikes at the bottom of Domancy.
Stage 16 of the #TDF2023 brings the race’s only individual time trial, 22.4 kilometers between Passy and Combleux.
To make it more spicy, Côte de Domancy (2.5km, 9.4%) – the climb tackled 20 times at the 1980 World Championships won by Bernard Hinault – will feature at the end. pic.twitter.com/9AsLvbQNJ8
— Soudal Quick-Step Pro Cycling Team (@soudalquickstep) July 18, 2023
Soudal-Quick Step’s Remi Cavagna took over the hot seat from Nikias Arndt with a time of 35:42.
The stage started into the GC top-50 with Cavagna still atop the column with Mads Pedersen +0:24 and Kasper Asgreen +0:35. Hugo Houle was 46th from last to start and Michael Woods 38th from last.
Swiss rider Stefan Küng, recent chrono winner at the Tour de Suisse, cracked Cavagna’s best time at the first intermediate check, but fell behind at Time 2 and farther behind by Time 3, a bike change messing with his flow.
Stage 2 winner Victor Lafay could see the funny side of crashing in the final kilometre. His team has two stage victories and Guillaume Martin is battling David Gaudu for the Tour’s Top Frenchman, so Cofidis is laughing.
Victor Lafay hits the ground in the final kilometre of the ITT.
He gets back up and sees the funny side, waving to the crowd and getting them to cheer him on. pic.twitter.com/XZZi2V7HOs
— le tour de robyn (@robynjournalist) July 18, 2023
After two hours in the hot seat, Cavagna started paying attention to Wout Van Aert’s time. The Belgian kept rising in the time check ranks. With the Jumbo-Visma rider stopping the clock at 35:27, Cavagna was usurped.
Eighth-place Simon Yates and…
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