Jonas Vingegaard won the Tour de France time trial by 98 seconds over rival Tadej Pogacar, significantly extending his lead in one of the closest tours in recent history.
Vingegaard, the reigning Tour champion, now leads Pogacar, the 2020 and 2021 Tour winner, by 1 minute and 48 seconds. There are five stages left, two of which are expected to compete for the overall podium (Wednesday and Saturday).
“It’s the best time trial I’ve ever ridden,” said Vingegaard, adding that he thought Pogacar was faster than him. “I even surprised myself.”
Dane Vingegaard completed the 14-mile Stage 16 in 32 minutes and 36 seconds. He led Slovenia’s Pogacar by 16 seconds at the first time check after 4.4 miles and built on it the rest of the way, including a 1.7 mile second category climb towards the end.
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It was the biggest margin of victory in a Tour time trial since 2003 (if you discount Lance Armstrong’s original second place finish to Jan Ullrich), but that was a 29-mile stage. According to ProCyclingStats.com, this was kilometer after kilometer the largest retirement in a Tour time trial since 1962.
Pogacar dominated the rest of the field on Tuesday, finishing 73 seconds ahead of third-placed Wout van Aert. He was a little shocked to be so far behind Vingegaard.
“I had hoped so [wearing the] Yellow [jersey] today,” said Pogacar. “It’s not easy to gain two minutes [back]a little less, but we’re trying.”
Vingegaard started the day 10 seconds clear of Pogacar, making it the second closest Tour before last week in the last 50 years.
Only the 2008 Tour, where Frank Schleck led seven seconds ahead of Bernard Kohl and eight seconds ahead of Cadel Evans, came closer at that point.
The race for third place is now closer than for the yellow jersey. Britain’s Adam Yates is five seconds clear of Spain’s Carlos Rodriguez after starting the time trial 19 seconds back.
The tour continues on Wednesday with stage 17, one of the last two mountain stages.
It is the most difficult of the eight mountain stages, with a vertical drop of over 5,000 meters (3.1 miles) crowned by the higher category Col de la Luze just before the descent to the finish.
“It’s definitely not over yet, especially if it rains tomorrow,” said Pogacar. “Then I can promise you that it will be interesting. There are still two really difficult stages ahead, I think the two toughest of this tour. Everything can happen.”