Tadej Pogačar clocked up his fourth stage win in this year’s Tour de France and further bolstered his overall lead, hammering his rivals in Thursday’s uphill TT to Peyragudes.
The UAE Team Emirates-XRG used an aero road bike rather than the TT bike favored by his rivals and blitzed the stage, beating Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) by 36 seconds and Primož Roglič (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) by 1:20.
This extended his overall advantage over Vingegaard to 4:07. Remco Evenepoel (Soudal Quick-Step) was caught by the latter and finished only 12th in his specialist discipline. However he remains third overall, 7:24 back.
Florian Lipowitz had a good showing, netting fourth, and is now closing on Evenepoel’s podium position. He is just six seconds adrift now, and will look for further gains on Saturday.
The biggest momentum, though, is with Pogačar.
“I am super happy. This time trial was a big question mark from December from me,” he said. “I wanted everything to be perfect, the team delivered in the final moments for everything to be on the top.
“I started the day good. I had an easy morning and a nice preparation. I was really targeting an all-out start and finish and to smash the pedals as much as possible. I almost blew up but I saw the timer at the top and it gave me an extra push because I knew I was going to win.”
Plapp and Jorgenson fare well early on
Stage 13 of the Tour de France took place on a Friday but the key GC riders were hoping for a little bit more luck against Tadej Pogačar than they experienced the day before.
The TT featured a 2.9km flat section prior to an eight kilometer uphill climb, averaging 7.9 percent and including steeper sections near the top.
Lennert Van Eetvelt (Lotto) was one of the early leaders, his 27 minutes 49.88 well ahead of those before him. That was soon bettered by Luke Plapp (Team Jayco AlUla), who went almost three minutes faster.
King of the mountains Lenny Martinez (Bahrain-Victorious) and former world champion Julian Alaphilippe (Tudor Pro Cycling) tried to improve on that but both fell short. So too EF Education-EasyPost engine Harry Sweeny and Pogačar’s teammate Adam Yates, the latter finishing 17 seconds off Plapp for provisional second.
The big names were all out on the road by then and US star Matteo Jorgenson (Visma-Lease a Bike) showed a good recovery from Thursday’s disappointment, taking provisional best at the first and second time checks.
Behind, Remco Evenepoel (Soudal Quick-Step) blasted through the first time point 9.89 seconds faster than the American. He appeared to be on a good day but soon run out of steam on the climb.
Meanwhile Primož Roglič (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) was showing much better form than he had previously in this Tour, improving Jorgenson’s time at intermediate point 2 by 30 seconds.
Pogačar starts fast, finishes faster
Unlike many, Pogačar favored an aero road bike Friday. The choice worked well.
Despite the flat roads early on, he was already was five seconds up on Evenepoel at the same check, posting the best time there.
Roglič stayed tucked low and spun his way to the summit, hammering Plapp’s time by 37 seconds and giving himself a psychological boost for the second half of the race.
In contrast Evenepoel was fading, taking only third at the next intermediate check. Vingegaard powered through the same point very soon afterwards, bettering Roglič’s mark by 29 seconds.
The two-time Tour winner was riding powerfully but Pogačar was even better. Sitting much higher on his machine than the others, he was building his advantage all the time and improved Vingegaard’s provisional best time there by a full 24 seconds.
Stage 5 TT winner Evenepoel had hoped to contend but was finding the uphill time trial a different matter entirely. His woes continued with issues with his gearing, costing him a number of seconds.
He managed to press on, regaining momentum, but was caught by Vingegaard on the steep drag up to the finish line.
The Dane’s effort saw him go 44 seconds faster than Roglič, but it wasn’t enough to beat Pogačar.
The race leader thundered in 37 seconds faster, nabbing his fourth stage win thus far and consolidating his grip on yellow.
Vingegaard and the others can only hope to right the ship on Saturday’s summit finish of Luchon-Superbagnières.
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