Remco Evenepoel presents his candidacy to win the Tour de France 2024

He was the top favorite to win the first time trial of the Tour de France 2024 and Remco Evenepoel has fulfilled the predictions in a convincing way, beating a splendid Tadej Pogacar who fought hard and Jonas Vingegaard who continues to fight for the Tour along with Primoz Roglic.

Maximum equality among the favorites in the first time trial of the Tour de France 2024

A key day in the Tour de France 2024 with the dispute of the first time trial. A mainly flat route between Nuits Saint Georges and Gevrey Chambertin of 25 kilometers through the famous vineyards of Burgundy. We say mainly flat because the central part of the route crossed a zone of gentle hills that added difficulty to the time trial.

A time trial in which the first reference time was set by Kevin Vauquelin, a time that was later surpassed by Victor Campenaerts by just hundredths of a second. Also a good performance by Wout van Aert who continues in this Tour de France 2024 with his preparation for the Olympics, who also came very close to his compatriot and Oier Lazkano who matched Wout's time.

However, Victor Campenaerts surely knew that his time had an expiration date and, as soon as the favorites for the victory in the Tour de France 2024 started, the GPS references already indicated that they were surpassing his time.

The script at the different intermediate points was the same for all. Primoz Roglic was setting the best time and, a couple of minutes later, Jonas Vingegaard surpassed him. After him, Remco Evenepoel, completely unleashed, beat the Dane this time not by a few seconds but decisively, and behind him, Tadej Pogacar, also impressive, remained just a few seconds behind the Belgian.

There was even a moment where it seemed that Tadej Pogacar could surpass Remco when in the third split he was just 6 seconds behind his time, but from there to the finish line, the mainly favorable terrain was perfect for a specialist like the Soudal-QuickStep cyclist to make the most of his power, entering triumphantly at the finish line and improving the best time at that moment, which did not belong to Jonas Vingegaard but to Primoz Roglic, proof that the Dane from Visma-Lease a Bike found the final part a bit long.

Returning to the fight for the stage victory, it was almost dramatic for Remco Evenepoel who, a few kilometers from the finish, stopped pedaling and started checking the rear wheel, giving the typical little bounces on the bike. Proof that he had heard or felt something strange. Who knows, maybe he had a puncture, heard the characteristic sound of air escaping, and managed to seal the hole without much pressure loss. It is assumed that if this is the case, we will know.

As we were saying, despite this scare, Remco Evenepoel beat Roglic's time by 34 seconds and, a couple of minutes later, Tadej Pogacar arrived at the finish line, unable to do anything against the Belgian's superiority in the time trial and losing 12 seconds. Still, he managed to gain a juicy 25 seconds over Jonas Vingegaard.

Carlos Rodríguez ended up worse off, losing 1 minute and 27 seconds to Remco, while Juan Ayuso conceded 1 minute 18 at the finish line.

Stage 7 Classification

1. Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-QuickStep) 28'52''
2. Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates) +12''
3. Primoz Roglic (Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe) +34''
4. Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) +37''
5. Victor Campenaerts (Lotto-Dstny) +52''
6. Kévin Vauquelin (Arkéa-B&B Hotels) +52''
7. Matteo Jorgenson (Visma-Lease a Bike) +54''
8. Joao Almeida (UAE Team Emirates) +57''
9. Ben Healy (EF Education-EasyPost) +59''
10. Stefan Küng (Groupama-FDJ) +1'00''

General Classification

1. Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates) 27h16'23''
2. Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-QuickStep) +33''
3. Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) +1'15''
4. Primoz Roglic (Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe) +1'36''
5. Juan Ayuso (UAE Team Emirates) +2'16''
6. Joao Almeida (UAE Team Emirates) +2'17''
7. Carlos Rodríguez (INEOS Grenadiers) +2'31''
8. Mikel Landa (Soudal-QuickStep) +3'35''
9. Matteo Jorgenson (Visma-Lease a Bike) +4'03''
10. Aleksandr Vlasov (Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe) +4'36''