Tour de France: Evenepoel wins the time trial in Caen, Pogacar in yellow

Over a 33-km course, the Belgian, the big favorite in this time trial, won by 16 seconds over Pogacar, who held off the Olympic champion admirably. Jonas Vingegaard, only 13th, was the day's biggest loser among the Tour favorites, losing one minute and 21 seconds to Evenepoel.

In the general classification, Pogacar, who took the yellow jersey from Mathieu van der Poel, whose time trial is not at all his specialty, now has a 42-second lead over Evenepoel, who moved from ninth to second place, 59 seconds over Kévin Vauquelin, and above all 1:13 over Vingegaard, a gap that is already very substantial.

Vauquelin set an excellent time to finish fifth on the stage, just behind his compatriot Bruno Armirail, 49 seconds behind Evenepoel, and had the luxury of overtaking the Spaniard Enric Mas, who had started before him.

This is Evenepoel's second stage victory in the Tour de France after winning the time trial last year in Gevrey-Chambertin on his Tour de France debut.

The Flemish rider, wearing a golden helmet since his Olympic double, is virtually invincible in this exercise. He has won the last six time trials he has taken part in, and nine out of 12 since the start of 2024. He completed the course in 36:42 at a staggering average speed of 54 km/h.

"I'm obviously happy with my performance. Getting a second stage win for our team is also very good," he said, winning two days after his Soudal Quick-Step teammate, Tim Merlier.

"Tadej also set a very strong time," he added. "Compared to the time at the Dauphiné (in June), he made a big step forward. He showed that he was in great shape and that he was the man to beat in this Tour. For my part, I took a step towards the podium, but the road is still long."