Jonas Vingegaard won the Tour de France time trial by 98 seconds over rival Tadej Pogacar, extending his lead considerably in what has been one of the closest Tours in recent history.
Reigning Tour champion Vingegaard now leads 2020 and 2021 Tour winner Pogacar by 1 minute 48 seconds with five stages remaining, two of which are expected to be competitive for the overall podium (Wednesday and Saturday ).
“It’s the best time trial I’ve ever done,” Vingegaard said, adding that he thought Pogacar would be faster than him. “I even surprised myself.”
Denmark’s Vingegaard covered the 14-mile stage 16 in 32 minutes and 36 seconds. He led Slovenia’s Pogacar by 16 seconds at the first time check at 4.4 miles and added to it the rest of the way, including a 1.7-mile category two climb near the end.
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It marked the largest margin of victory in a Tour time trial since 2003 (if you exclude Lance Armstrong’s original second-place finish to Jan Ullrich), but it was a 29-mile stage. Mile for mile, this was the biggest blowout in a Tour time trial since 1962, according to ProCyclingStats.com.
Pogacar dominated the rest of the field on Tuesday, finishing 73 seconds ahead of third-placed Wout van Aert. I was a little surprised to be so far away from Vingegaard.
“I expected to be [wearing the] Yellow [jersey] today,” said Pogacar. “It’s not easy to win two minutes [back]a little less, but we try.”
Vingegaard started the day with a 10-second lead over Pogacar, making it the second-closest Tour in the final week in the last 50 years.
Only the 2008 Tour, where Frank Schleck led by seven seconds over Bernard Kohl and eight seconds over Cadel Evans, was closer at that stage.
The race for third place is now closer than for the yellow jersey. Britain’s Adam Yates leads Spain’s Carlos Rodríguez by five seconds after starting the time trial with a 19-second deficit.
The Tour continues on Wednesday with stage 17, one of the last two mountain stages.
It is the most difficult of the eight total mountain stages with more than 5,000 meters (3.1 miles) of elevation gain, topped off by the category beyond the Col de la Luze just before a descent to the finish.
“It’s definitely not over, especially if it rains tomorrow,” Pogacar said. “Then I can promise you it will be interesting. Two more very tough stages to come, I think the two toughest of this Tour. Anything can happen.”
