Jonas Vingegaard knocks out the Tour de France. Author of an anthology performance in the time trial between Passy and Combloux, the Dane created a gap of 1’38” with Tadej Pogacar, who still took second place. As expected, the two ogres of this Tour de France flew over this solitary effort. Yet a time trial specialist, the Belgian Wout van Aert had to settle for third place, 2′51′’ behind his teammate, winner of the day.
This victory allows the Yellow Jersey to afford a significant gap before a new mountain stage this Wednesday, with in particular the terrible and interminable Col de la Loze as a justice of the peace. He is now 1′48′ ahead of Tadej Pogacar and 8′52′ over third-placed Adam Yates.
Before Jonas Vingegaard’s incredible performance, several riders thought they could win at Combloux. In search of a first victory in the Tour de France, Rémi Cavagna has long been in the lead thanks to his time of 35’28”. The French champion of the specialty was indeed endangered by Stefan Küng, a time in the lead temporarily, but the Swiss broke his teeth on the Côte de Domancy and did not manage to seize this best time.
The Clermont-Ferrand TGV was finally beaten by another national time trial champion, Belgian Wout van Aert. Despite a second intermediate time much worse than that of the Frenchman, the Jumbo-Visma rider achieved an impressive climb of the Côte de Domancy to improve the reference time by 15 seconds. But this performance was still not enough against the power of his Danish teammate, untouchable on Tuesday.
This Wednesday, Tadej Pogacar will have a chance to close the gap at the top of the Col de la Loze, but the gap seems too big to hope for a third Tour de France. Jonas Vingegaard is heading for his second consecutive Grande Boucle.
