The 2,600 kilometers covered since the start of the Tour de France, in Bilbao, in the Spanish Basque Country, on 1er July, had failed to decide between them. Only ten seconds separated the yellow jersey, Jonas Vingegaard, from his runner-up in the general classification, Tadej Pogacar, at the dawn of the 16e stage. It only took 22 kilometers to completely change the situation. At the end of the only individual time trial of this 110e edition, between Passy (Haute-Savoie) and Combloux, Tuesday July 18, the gap between the two men is now close to two minutes: 1 min 48 s ahead for the leader of the Jumbo-Visma.
The Dane offered himself his first stage victory of this vintage 2023, the third of his career on the event, disgusting the competition. The term is appropriate: Tadej Pogacar, second of the day, finishes at 1 min 38 s; the Belgian champion of the specialty, Wout van Aert, third, at 2 min 51 s. As for the French Rémi Cavagna, a time installed on the seat reserved for the rider having made the best passage and who predicted around thirty seconds of disbursements on the favorites, he ranks sixth… more than three minutes from Vingegaard.
The leader of the Jumbo-Visma passed the one nicknamed the “TGV of Clermont” for an old micheline. In fact, the profile of this time trial corresponded more to the qualities of the Dane than to pure riders like the rider of the Soudal-Quick Step, with in particular the Domancy coast, this 2.5 kilometer long climb. with an average slope of 9.4%, which became famous thanks to the title of world champion won here by Bernard Hinault in 1980.
Still, at the finish, Jonas Vingegaard’s performance was no less astounding: an average of 41.2 km/h, or 4 km/h faster than the organizers’ highest estimates. “I haven’t seen the numbers yet, but it was very, very fastrecognized Grischa Niermann, the sporting director of his team. It is undoubtedly the best time of his career. We knew what he was capable of and that this time trial suited him perfectly. I expected him to [ce parcours] suits Tadej at least as much…”
The Dane’s performance is so breathtaking that it will certainly raise questions about a possible use of doping. Already questioned on this subject on Sunday, Vingegaard had these words: “It’s true that we are going fast, even faster than [certains tricheurs avérés par le passé]. » And to add: “Equipment, nutrition, training, everything has changed, and that explains why performance is improving. But it’s fine to be skeptical, because otherwise it [les performances biaisées par le dopage] will happen again. »
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