The pair put time on the other members of the ‘Big Four’, Jonas Wingegaard (Visma–Lease A Bike) and Primoz Roglic (Red Bull–Bora–Hansgrohe).
Evenepoel achieved an average speed of more than 52 km/h – 52.373 km/h – over the 23.4 km course in his first Tour stage, which also meant he had completed a set of Grand Tour stage wins. He won by 12 seconds from Pogacar and 34 seconds from third-place Roglic. Wingegaard was three seconds behind.
The Belgian was the reigning world time trial champion and Pogačar was the only rider to average more than 52 km/h in the time trial, which included a climb of 283 metres.
“It’s crazy,” Evenepoel said. “I was on a good day, the climbing was quite difficult. I wanted to start fast, and I had to put something on for the climb which was not easy. The descent, when you’re at the limit, was quite technical and fast. I Enjoyed every meter of this TT, and I’m very happy to come away with this win.”
A moment of potential misfortune came with about 2 km to go when Evenepoel thought he had a mechanical problem. The 24-year-old man’s tire jumped on the road, but he did not need to change his bike.
“I was pretty sure I actually had a puncture, maybe someone had dropped some glass, it sounded exactly like a puncture, so I was a little scared,” he said. “But after going a few hundred meters further I realized that there was nothing wrong, so I had to move ahead with a little fear (In this way) in my head. I thought maybe it was a slow puncture. I wasn’t very confident in the last corners, but I had to take the risk because I knew Tadej was close to me. 13 seconds is amazing. It was a close fight, but I just wanted to win today. So I’m very proud.”
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Evenepoel is now 33 seconds behind Pogacar in the general classification, and 42 seconds ahead of Wingegaard. Other changes in the GC saw Juan Ayuso (UAE Team Emirates) lose time, while his teammate João Almeida, a time trial specialist, gained seconds. Carlos Rodriguez (Ineos Grenadiers) and Mikel Landa (Soudal Quick-Step) also slipped places.
The first of the non-GC men that day was Victor Campenaerts (Lotto Disanti), who spent almost two hours in the hot seat and finished fifth, but 52 seconds behind the winner.
“We weren’t really thinking about time laps on the GC, we just wanted to get the win,” said Evenepoel. “It’s done, so a perfect day for me and my team. Took some time off on the others, so mission accomplished, so now we have to focus on tomorrow and Sunday.
“Tadej is going to be quite tough, but this is racing, you never know what will happen. The more I go into the races, the better I feel. We will probably focus more on the podium, and we just have to go for it. Go and enjoy this tour.”
(Image credit: Getty Images)
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First on the ramp was Mark Cavendish (Astana-Kazakhstan), who, despite winning a stage on Wednesday, was last in the general classification. The Manxman set a time of 33.21.52, which was quickly surpassed by his teammate Michael Morkov.
An early solid time was set by Lenny Martínez (Groupama–FDJ), who was the first rider to go under 32 minutes in 31.40,84.
This was not improved until Luke Durbridge (Jaco Alula), who went over 20 seconds faster. Next on the hot seat was Nils Pollitt (UAE Team Emirates), but his stay was short-lived as he was soon bettered by Stefan Biesegger (EF Education–EasyPost) in 30.06.66.
However, Kevin Vauquelin (Arcaia–B&B Hotels) again went faster, the winner of stage two over the 25.3 km course – 29.44.94, actually the first rider to finish by less than half an hour.
Victor Campenaerts (Lotto Dustany) looked fast throughout, but managed to beat Vauquelin’s time by just 0.76 of a second, taking it all the way.
Stefan Küng (Groupama–FDJ) was very set to post a new best time, but a mechanical mid-race saw him change his chain while cycling, going from green to red. He fell well short of setting a new best time.
Wout van Aert (Visma–Lease A Bike), a rider who has won a time trial in the Tour before, was looking for a good time at the start, but fell a minute behind on the Campanaerts.
The time of the Campenarts lasted a long time; He looked briefly intimidated by Ben Healy (EF Education-EasyPost), but the Irish rider came home seven seconds behind the Belgian.
The top ten in the general classification was led by Egan Bernal (Ineos Grenadiers), with a battle between Remco Evenepoel (Soudal Quick-Step), Jonas Vingegaard (Visma–Lease A Bike), Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) and others. ) and Primoz Roglic (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe).
At the first time check, Evenepoel was fastest, three seconds ahead of Pogacar, who himself was eight seconds ahead of Wingegaard. Roglic was 20 seconds behind world champion Evenepoel.
Roglic then went fastest at the second time test, but Vinggaard went 14 seconds ahead of him on the climb. Evenepoel was 23 seconds ahead of the Dane, and all the riders moved out of the way. This left only Pogacar on the day’s hill climb, 10 seconds behind his Belgian rival.
At the third and final time trial, Wingegaard once again went faster than Roglic, but the gap was narrowed. Evenepoel was almost 30 seconds up on Wingegaard, and six seconds ahead of Pogasar.
Roglic took the race lead by 17 seconds from Campanaerts, who was on the hot seat for a few hours. After a long battle, Vingegaard finished three seconds behind this time.
Evenepoel seemed to be in trouble with less than 2 km to go, his gears not working properly, but the problem soon went away. Later he said that he thought he had been punctured.
The Belgian world champion set the fastest time by more than half a minute and then the wait for Pogsar began. The UAE Team Emirates rider lost only a few seconds to Evenepoel in the end, a total of 12 seconds.
Result
Tour de France 2024, stage 7: Nuits-Saint-Georges > Gevrey-Chambertin, 25.3 km (ITT)
1. Remco Evenepoel (Bell) in Soudal Quick-Step, 28:52
2. Tadej Pogacar (Slow) UAE Team Emirates, +12s
3. Primoz Roglič (SLO) Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe, +34s
4. Jonas Wingegaard (Den) Visma-Lease A Bike, +37s
5. Victor Campenaerts (Bell) Lotto Destiny, +52 seconds
6. Kevin Vauquelin (Fr) Arcia-B&B Hotel, at the same time
7. Matteo Jorgensen (USA) Visma-Lease A Bike, +54s
8. Joao Almeida (Por) UAE Team Emirates, +57s
9. Ben Healy (Ireland) EF Education-EasyPost, +59s
10. Stephen Kung (Sui) Groupama-FDJ, +1:00
General classification after step 7
1. Tadej Pogacar (SLO) UAE Team Emirates, in 27:16:23
2. Remco Evenepoel (Bale) Soudal Quick-Step, +33s
3. Jonas Vingegaard (Den) Visma-Lease A Bike, +1:15
4. Primoz Roglič (SLO) Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe, +1:36
5. Juan Ayuso (ASP) UAE Team Emirates, +2:16
6. Joao Almeida (POR) UAE Team Emirates, +2:17
7. Carlos Rodriguez (Asp) Ineos Grenadiers, +2:31
8. Mikel Landa (ESP) Soudal-Quick Step, +3:35
9. Matteo Jorgensen (USA) Visma-Lease A Bike, +4:03
10. Alexander Vlasov (Russia) Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe, +4:36