Remco Evenepoel won the first individual time trial in the 2024 Tour de France, after beating current race leader, Tadej Pogacar, in the 23.5km “race of truth”
In his debut Tour, the former Vuelta a España champion Evenepoel has so far shown himself to be the biggest obstacle to Pogacar taking a third yellow jersey in Nice, with the defending champion, Jonas Vingegaard still short of his best form.
“I was on a good day,” Evenepoel said. “The climb was actually pretty tough. “I wanted to start fast and had to keep something for the climb, which wasn’t easy, but I enjoyed every metre of this time trial. Coming out with the win is simply amazing.”
On the rolling course through the vineyards of the Cote d’Or, the Soudal Quick-Step rider, watched by his entire family at the roadside, was the fastest at every time check, but as he entered the final 3km, the Belgian slowed when he appeared to have mechanical problems.
“I was pretty sure I had a puncture, but maybe somebody in the public dropped a glass or something,” he said of his momentary pause. “It was exactly the same sound as a puncture, so I was a bit scared.”
But the 24-year-old world time trial champion, now a winner of stages in all three Grand Tours, recovered from his scare to beat Pogacar by 12sec and the defending champion, the Visma Lease-a-bike leader, Vingegaard, by 37sec.
“I had to take risks because I knew Tadej was pretty close to me,” Evenepoel said. “But in the end victory is amazing. Tadej can also do very good time trials in Grand Tours, so it was a close one. But I just wanted to win today.”
Vingegaard is battling hard but the double Tour winner has now slipped further behind Pogacar, and has 1:15 to make up to his Slovenian rival. Also showing better form is Primoz Roglic, third in the time trial and now just 16 seconds behind the Dane.
