Tour de France Stage Report: Today was a big test for the top men, 25.3 kilometres against the clock with a slight climb. Remco Evenepoel (Soudal Quick-Step) took the stage honours, beating the yellow jersey, Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) by 12 seconds. But the Slovenian extended his lead on all the others.
Stage 7 finale
Remco Evenepoel won the individual time trial stage 7 of the Tour de France. The Soudal Quick-Step rider beat Tadej Pogačar by 12 seconds. Third place went to Primoz Roglič. Pogačar remains overall leader. Jonas Vingegaard lost some time on the other favourites, but is still in third place on GC.
Stage win for Remco Evenepoel and closer to Pogačar
Christian Prudhomme, Tour de France general director: “Great wines for great riders! But before venturing into the heart of the vineyards, the time trial specialists will spend almost two-thirds of this time trial on forest roads. The climb of the Côte de Curtil-Vergy (1.6km at 6.1%), which comes in the final section, will test their tolerance to pain. On the face of it, there shouldn’t be any big gaps between the best riders, but who knows?”
Stage 7 profile
The first of two races against the clock is on stage 7. A 25 kilometre time trial from Nuits-Saint-Georges to Gevrey-Chambertin. There is a climb of about 1.5 kilometres and there is a total of 300 metres of climbing. The time trial has one climb: the Côte de Reulle-Vergey (1.5km at 6.5%). After 10 kilometres through the Burgundian vineyards, the riders hit the climb. The approach is slightly uphill and after the summit the road has a false flat for another 4 kilometres before the descent. There are 3 kilometres downhill to Chambolle-Musigny and then there are 6.5 kilometres of flat to the finish in Gevrey-Chambertin.
4th man off – Cees Bol
The green jersey, Biniam Girmay was one of the early starters – 140 riders to go
The GC men were all off at the end of the stage, so we had to wait for a TT specialist to set a good target time. The first was from Stefan Bissegger. The Swiss rider went under 31 minutes to set a time of 30:06. He had an average speed of over 50 kph. Bissegger didn’t stay in the ‘hot seat’ for long, because Kévin Vauquelin beat his time.
Chips and beer on the course – Looks like a good day ahead
Early leader – Kevin Vauquelin (Arkea-B&B Hotels)
The young Frenchman, who won the second stage of the Tour, went under 30 minutes, but he soon had to give up his seat. It was Victor Campenaerts who set the new fastest time, although the difference was less than a second. That time looked like it would be improved by Stefan Küng, but the Swiss time trial champion had a mechanical.
The next man in the ‘Hot Seat’ was Victor Campenaerts with a time of 29:44:18
Wout van Aert was out on the road, but he clearly wasn’t having a good day. The Visma | Lease a Bike rider didn’t finish anywhere near the top places. Campenaerts was able to stay in the ‘hot seat’ for a long time, because after Van Aert, there was a long wait for the next time trial specialist.
Belgian TT champion – Tim Wellens (UAE Team Emirates)
Local rider, Julien Bernard, had a great time trial. The Lidl-Trek Frenchman was strongly supported on the start podium, but on the climb he stopped to greet his wife and child amongst a party atmosphere.
Ex-Belgian TT champion – Wout Van Aert
The tension was rising at the finish. Ben Healy, Ilan Van Wilder and Derek Gee did well at the intermediate times and would threaten Campenaerts. But, the Irish, Belgian and Canadian rider were not fast enough. GC riders; Aleksandr Vlasov and Matteo Jorgenson set good times, but they too could not dethrone Campenaerts.
KOM Jonas Abrahamsen (Uno-X Mobility)
In the final, all eyes were on the last four starters; Primoz Roglič, Jonas Vingegaard, Remco Evenepoel and Tadej Pogačar. The four each set the new fastest time at the first intermediate point, but it was Evenepoel who was the fastest. Pogačar lost only 3 seconds, Vingegaard and Roglič had to give up a little more time. At the top of the climb it was still Evenepoel who had the fastest time.
Nelson Powless (EF Education-EasyPost) had his fans on the course
The Belgian was ahead of all the others, but Pogačar was only at 10 seconds. Roglič was then the first rider of the four to finish. The Slovenian was 18 seconds faster than Campenaerts and set the new fastest time. Roglič had planned his time trial well, as in the last part he made up time compared to Vingegaard. The Dane was 3 seconds slower in the time trial than Roglič.
A stunningly good time from Ben Healy came close to Campenaerts
Evenepoel briefly experienced equipment problem, he thought he had punctured. He hadn’t, but he was nervous from there to the finish. It looked like Pogačar might take the victory, but in the last kilometres Evenepoel lifted his speed again to take his first victory in the Tour de France.
Primoz Roglič put up the next top time
Pogačar lost 12 seconds to Evenepoel. Roglič finished third at 34 seconds. Vingegaard was off the stage podium at 37 seconds.
Jonas Vingegaard was fast but came in slower than Roglič
A top time was expected from Remco Evenepoel and he didn’t disappoint
Stage winner, 2nd overall and best young rider, Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-Quick Step): “It’s crazy. I was on a good day. The climb was pretty tough, because I wanted to start fast but I wanted to keep something. The descent was technical and fast, you have to do it well. I enjoyed every metre of this TT. Coming out with the win is amazing so I’m super happy. I was pretty sure I had a puncture. Maybe somebody from the public dropped a glass or hit a fence – it made the same sound as a puncture! I was a bit scared, but after few metres I knew nothing was wrong. I kept pushing even with the scare, fearing that maybe it was a slow puncture so I was not as sure as before in the last few corners. I had to take risks, Tadej was close to me. Getting the victory by 12” is amazing. Tadej can do very good time trials, especially in Grand Tours. We weren’t really thinking about time gaps for GC. We wanted a stage win, and that is done. It’s a perfect day for me and my team. Mission accomplished. Now we focus on tomorrow and on Sunday. As for the rest of the Tour de France, I believe Tadej is going to be unreachable. But this is cycling, you never know what can happen. I think the further into the race we go, the better I will feel, so I’ll focus more on the podium because I feel I have the legs for it.”
Tadej Pogačar lost 12 seconds on Evenepoel, but put time into all his other rivals
2nd on the stage and overall leader, Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates): “I started really well, with good legs. I went a bit too hard on the climb and then on the rolling part on the top I think I suffered the most. Towards the end was a nice parcours also and I really enjoyed today’s time trial. To lose against Remco, World Champion, the best time trialist right now, it’s still a pretty good feeling. I can be satisfied. I would have loved to have taken a stage win today but against Remco it’s a bit tough. But I can gained time on Primoz [Roglic] and Jonas [Vingegaard] and the other guys so I can be really happy. I need to keep an eye on Remco now, he is a bit closer, but also Jonas and Primoz I think they can show their good legs in the next mountain stages. I think in this Tour de France, the hard stages are coming really towards the end and the bodies will be really tired. So we could see bigger gaps. I would say that right now it’s really close and for me it’s better to be in the lead than be chasing. I already did two good time trials at the Giro, yet I rate this performance somehow higher as I only lost to the current World Champion by just a few seconds and was still above some tough guys like Primoz and Jonas. I think the TT in Nice should be nice for me too, as I know the roads quite well.”
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Tour de France Stage 7 Result:
1. Remco Evenepoel (Bel) Soudal-Quick Step in 28:52
2. Tadej Pogačar (Slo) UAE Team Emirates at 0:12
3. Primož Roglič (Slo) Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe at 0:34
4. Jonas Vingegaard (Den) Visma | Lease a Bike at 0:37
5. Victor Campenaerts (Bel) Lotto Dstny at 0:51
6. Kévin Vauquelin (Fra) Arkéa-B&B Hotels at 0:52
7. Matteo Jorgenson (USA) Visma | Lease a Bike at 0:53
8. João Almeida (Por) UAE Team Emirates at 0:57
9. Ben Healy (Irl) EF Education-EasyPost at 0:59
10. Stefan Küng (Sui) Groupama-FDJ at 1:00
Tour de France Overall After Stage 7:
1. Tadej Pogačar (Slo) UAE Team Emirates in 27:16:23
2. Remco Evenepoel (Bel) Soudal Quick-Step at 0:33
3. Jonas Vingegaard (Den) Visma | Lease a Bike at 1:15
4. Primož Roglič (Slo) Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe at 1:36
5. Juan Ayuso Pesquera (Por) UAE Team Emirates at 2:16
6. João Almeida (Por) UAE Team Emirates at 2:17
7. Carlos Rodriguez Cano (Spa) INEOS Grenadiers at 2:31
8. Mikel Landa Meana (Spa) Soudal Quick-Step at 3:35
9. Matteo Jorgenson (USA) Visma | Lease a Bike at 4:03
10. Aleksander Vlasov (-) Red Bull-BORA-hansgrohe at 4:36.
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