5 hours ago
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Tadej Pogacar took the race lead in the Tour de France from Mathieu van der Poel, after finishing second to Remco Evenepoel in the stage five time trial in Caen, and opened clear daylight on his key rival, Jonas Vingegaard.
While Olympic and world time trial champion Evenepoel, riding at an average speed of 54km/h, claimed an expected stage success, Pogacar was the day’s real winner, as Vingegaard’s challenge wilted in the heat of the Calvados afternoon.
Although Luke Plapp, a Giro d’Italia stage winner, and Vingegaard’s teammate Edoardo Affini, had set the earlier pace, by the time the Belgian crossed the finish line in Caen they had both been blown away by Evenepoel’s unrelenting speed.
But Pogacar’s performance exceeded expectations and will have fuelled despondency on Vingegaard’s Visma Lease-a-bike team bus, with the double Tour winner now well over a minute behind his Slovenian rival before the first mountain stage.
Evenepoel, the winner of the 2024 Tour time trial stage to Gevrey-Chambertin, had bullishly predicted he would make up almost a minute on Pogacar and, quickly into his low compact position, set off at breakneck pace. But it was not the dominant display many had predicted.
Pogacar, blindsided by a flying Evenepoel in the Critérium du Dauphiné time trial a month ago, was this time a different prospect. The Slovenian’s performance in the roads around Caen was much more competitive than expected and transformed a slim overnight advantage on Vingegaard, of eight seconds, into a significant lead of 1min 13sec.
