Remco Evenepoel takes time-trial victory on stage seven

Remco Evenepoel takes time-trial victory on stage seven

Belgian Remco Evenepoel claimed his maiden victory on the Tour de France when he prevailed on the seventh stage, a 25.3-km individual time trial from Nuits-Saint-Georges on Friday.

Tour debutant Evenepoel clocked 28 minutes and 52 seconds to beat Tadej Pogacar by 12 seconds as the Slovenian retained the overall leaders yellow jersey.

Fellow Slovenian Primoz Roglic took third place, 34 seconds off the pace and three seconds ahead of defending champion Jonas Vingegaard, who finished fourth.

Overall, Pogacar leads Evenepoel by 33 seconds and Dane Vingegaard by 1:15.

Reuters

@ketoneaid #TDF2024 pic.twitter.com/RMeHOIaTuK

Soudal Quick-Step Pro Cycling Team (@soudalquickstep) July 5, 2024

“Coming out with the win is simply amazing” Remco Evenepoel overcame a late scare to take his first Tour de France stage win ️#TDF2024 pic.twitter.com/kG63Bve7Hx

ITV Cycling (@itvcycling) July 5, 2024

Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates) 27hrs 16min 23sec

Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-Quick Step) +33 sec

Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) +1min 15sec

Primoz Roglic (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe)  +1min 36sec

Juan Ayuso (UAE Team Emirates) +2min 16sec

Remco Evenepoel 28min 52sec

Tadej Pogacar +12sec

Primoz Roglic +34sec

Jonas Vingegaard +37sec

Victor Campenaerts +52sec

Pogacar comes across the line but he cannot beat Evenepoels time. He finishes 12 seconds down on the Belgian so Remco Evenepoel wins stage seven!

A first Tour de France victory for Remco Evenepoel! He beats Tadej Pogačar by 12 seconds in the stage 7 time trial #TDF2024 pic.twitter.com/gvth91MtRp

ITV Cycling (@itvcycling) July 5, 2024

He may have had a slight gear issue but the Soudal-Quick Step rider is over 30 seconds clear of Roglic with a time of 28mins 52 secs. Will Pogacar beat him or not?

That is a surprise. The defending champion was ahead of his former teammate for most of that ride but he comes home three seconds behind.

Behind Evenepoel has had a momentary mechanical issue but has not been bogged down by it. How much time will he have lost from that?

A problem for Remco Evenepoel!#TDF2024 pic.twitter.com/VuOZpf425N

Eurosport (@eurosport) July 5, 2024

The Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe rider comes across the line just under 20 seconds faster than Campenaerts with a time of 29mins 26secs but he will not stay quickest for long…

Roglic has under 1,000 metres to go but it looks like he is going to lose time to his main rivals.

Vingegaard is just shy of 15 seconds faster than Roglic at the top of the hill.

Evenepoel is next to hit that marker and he is flying. He is 23 seconds clear of Vingegaard.

The last man to the second checkpoint is Pogacar, who is ten seconds behind Evenepoel but 13 seconds ahead of Vingegaard. Advantage Evenepoel at the moment.

Of the big four it is Roglic who is the slowest, around 20 seconds off Evenepoels time at the first checkpoint.

Vingegaards teammate Matteo Jorgenson has just come across the line in third, two seconds off Campenaerts.

All the big hitters have gone past the first checkpoint. Vingegaard goes through in nine minutes 50 seconds.

Evenepoel though goes through 11 seconds faster than the defending champion.

Pogacar comes through three seconds behind Evenepoels time but eight seconds quicker than Vingegaard.

We have some incredible time triallists out there, which is part of the reason why they feature right at the top of the general classification. Vingegaard is going well in the early stages, as is Evenepoel.

Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-Quick Step) and Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates) are down the ramp and fireworks are in store over the next half an hour.

Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) gets going. He had an incredible individual time trial last year but can he replicate that with a similar type of performance today?

Up to the finish Derek Gee (Israel-Premier Tech) comes home in seventh so far, 25 seconds down on Campenaerts.

Primoz Roglic (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) is under way and we have just Ayuso, Vingegaard, Evenepoel and Pogacar to come.

We are now into the top ten riders in the general classification and the likes of Pogacar, Vingegaard, Evenepoel and Roglic are minutes away from getting started.

Ben Healy was going so well but maybe he went off too quickly as he has dropped away slightly. He was up but he comes home in third, seven seconds down on Campenaerts.

It has been a tough time trial for Thomas, who comes home 90 seconds off the fastest time so far.

This is not going well for Geraint Thomas, who is just over halfway through his ride but is over a minute down on the fastest time at that point.

He may be a two-time French national time trial champion, including this year, but Bruno Armirail finishes 50 seconds down on Campenaerts.

The Irishman from EF Education-EasyPost is flying midway through his ride and is up on our current leader Campenaerts.

Primoz Roglic (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe)- 15:52

Juan Ayuso (UAE Team Emirates)- 15.54

Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike)- 15.56

Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-Quick Step)- 15.58

Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates)- 16.00

The French two-time national time trial champion is around 30 seconds down with around 10 minutes left of his ride.

Former Tour de France winner Geraint Thomas (Ineos Grenadiers) gets his time trial going.

Julien Bernard (Lidl-Trek) is embracing the home support as he gives high-fives to the fans and whips up the crowd. You very rarely see this! He even stops to give his wife a kiss and hug his son.

All the love for Julien Bernard @lidltrek #TDF2024 pic.twitter.com/b34LEYwgJN

Eurosport (@eurosport) July 5, 2024

The French national time trial champion Bruno Armirail (Decathlon-Ag2R La Mondiale) is under way.

Up at the finish Nelson Oliveira (Movistar) goes into fifth, around 30 seconds down on Campenaerts.

The Visma-Lease a Bike rider is just shy of a minute off Campenaerts and into sixth for now, but he will drop quite a bit between now and the finish. Not Wouts day.

The likes of Neilson Powless (EF Education-EasyPost) and Wilco Kelderman (Visma-Lease a Bike) have started their time trials.

Victor Campenaerts (Lotto Dstny) 29min 44sec

Kévin Vauquelin (Arkéa-B&B Hotels) 29min 44sec

Stefan Küng (Groupama-FDJ) 29min 52sec

Stefan Bissegger (EF Education-EasyPost) 30min 06sec

Oier Lazkano (Movistar) 30min 33sec

Primoz Roglic (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe)- 15:52

Juan Ayuso (UAE Team Emirates)- 15.54

Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike)- 15.56

Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-Quick Step)- 15.58

Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates)- 16.00

Küng has given it everything but the chain issue has cost him. He finishes eight seconds off Campenaerts and he would have led without that issue.

It is Belgium vs France, the latter was successful in the Euros but this time the former is successful by three quarters of a second! Wow! That was so close but Campenaerts gets it by the smallest of margins. Vauquelin cannot believe it as he has his hands on his head.

This is going to be close as it is neck and neck with Campenaerts hitting the final two kilometres.

We are about to see Wout van Aert (Visma-Lease a Bike) get his time trial started.

Meanwhile up ahead Küng is 18 seconds down on Vauquelin through the second checkpoint so he has lost at least 20 seconds at the bar minimum from the chain problem.

Victor Campenaerts (Lotto Dstny) is very close to Vauquelin at the second checkpoint, just a few seconds down.

Stefan Küng (Groupama-FDJ) was going well but will be so frustrated as has had an issue with his chain.

“This is an absolute disaster for Stefan Küng!” The Swiss specialist’s chain slips off mid-TT effort on stage 7 of the #TDF2024 pic.twitter.com/qHCDn7s67h

Eurosport (@eurosport) July 5, 2024

He can! The Frenchman comes across the line in a time of 29mins 44secs, which is 21 seconds faster than Bissegger. That is the first time we have seen under the 30-minute mark today.

The Arkéa-B&B Hotels rider is into the final kilometre and looks set to go to the top of the timesheets. Can he close it out to take the lead for the time being?

The likes of Stefan Küng (Groupama-FDJ) and Jan Tratnik (Visma-Lease a Bike) are just getting their efforts under way.

Kévin Vauquelin (Arkéa-B&B Hotels) has made a very strong start to this time trial and at the first timing point, he is 30 seconds faster than Bissegger. Vauquelin, who is on his Tour debut, won stage two into Bologna.

We have a new entry into the top three as Movistars Oier Lazkano has moved above his compatriot Garcia Pierna with a time of 30min 33sec, 27 seconds off Bisseggers time.

The man who won the Mens road race at the 2023 UCI Road World Championships, Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck), has got his individual time trial going.

This is what they put into the individual time trial to have a chance of a stage victory:

Here are when the top five in the general classification get their time trials going:

Primoz Roglic (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe)- 15:52

Juan Ayuso (UAE Team Emirates)- 15.54

Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike)- 15.56

Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-Quick Step)- 15.58

Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates)- 16.00

After Stefan Bissegger set the quickest time so far, we have had two new additions to the top three as Raul Garcia Pierna (Arkéa-B&B Hotels) and Michael Matthews (Jayco-Alula) have put themselves into second and third respectively.

Nils Politt (UAE Team Emirates) goes across the line into first, 25 seconds faster than Luke Durbridge, but he will have no time to go and sit on the leaders throne as Stefan Bissegger (EF Education-EasyPost) sets the new fastest time with a 30 minute 6 seconds time, over 40 seconds clear of Politt.

I suspect in the next 10 minutes we will have a new leader in the shape of Stefan Bissegger, who has just over 5km to go and is going well.

We have a change at the top of the timesheets as Luke Durbridge (Jayco-Alula) sets a time of 31 minutes and 14 seconds, 26 seconds faster than the previous leader Lenny Martinez. It was a great day for the Jayco-Alula team yesterday as Dylan Groenewegen won the sprint into Dijon and Durbridge for the time being goes fastest.

Behind at the second checkpoint Stefan Bissegger (EF Education-EasyPost) is going really well.

The first man to get his time trial going today was Mark Cavendish (Astana Qazaqstan), who finished in a time of 33 minutes and 21 seconds.

The man who is currently in possession of the yellow jersey, Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates), has been out this morning checking out the route from Nuits-Saint-Georges to Gevrey-Chambertin.

Mark Cavendish (Astana Qazaqstan) will be the first down the starting ramp at 12.05pm, with race leader Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates) setting of last at 4pm. Please note that the times listed below are central European times, so please take off an hour if you are following from the United Kingdom.

Hello, good afternoon and welcome to our live rolling blog from stage seven at the Tour de France, the 25.3 kilometre individual time trial from Nuits-Saint-Georges and Gevrey-Chambertin.

Despite its relatively flat profile the stage features just 300 metres in vertical elevation the course features a short climb with one kilometre of it at an average of seven per cent.

With a second short rise that pitches up to around six per cent, it is widely expected that the course will suit the general classification riders, rather than the out-and-out testers. So good news for Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates), Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-Quick Step) and Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease A Bike), less so for Stefan Küng (Groupama-FDJ) or Swiss compatriot Stefan Bissegger (EF Education-Easypost).

The smart money for the stage win today will be on Evenepoel. The world time trial champion blew away the field at last months time trial at the Critérium du Dauphiné, but since then has last a reported 2½ kilograms. The Belgian, who is making his Tour debut, is looking the leanest Telegraph Sport has ever seen him. It will be interesting to see how his sustained power has, if at all, been affected by that weight loss. From a British perspective, one suspects the top brass at British Cycling will be watching this race closely as they prepare for the upcoming Olympics. Welshman Josh Tarling will be heading to Paris as one of the favourites, along with Evenepoel, and so the number-crunchers will, most likely, be monitoring the Soudal-Quick Step mans performance this afternoon.

As tradition dictates, riders will roll down the starting ramp in reverse order of the general classification standings, and so lanterne rouge Mark Cavendish (Astana Qazaqstan) will be the first of, at 12.05pm. The first 58 riders will set off with one-minute intervals, before that gap between riders extends to 1min 30sec. The final 10 riders will be separated by intervals of two minutes.

Coverage from todays stage will get under way at 1.15pm.

Preview by John MacLeary

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