Jonas Vingegaard won the Tour de France’s time trial by 98 seconds over rival Tadej Pogacar, considerably padding his lead in what has been one of the closest Tours in recent history.
Vingegaard, the defending Tour champion, now leads Pogacar, the 2020 and 2021 Tour winner, by 1 minute, 48 seconds with five stages left, two of which are expected to be competitive for the overall podium (Wednesday and Saturday).
“It’s the best time trial I’ve ever done,” said Vingegaard, adding that he thought Pogacar would be faster than him. “I even surprised myself.”
The Dane Vingegaard covered the 14-mile stage 16 in 32 minutes, 36 seconds. He led Slovenian Pogacar by 16 seconds at the first time check at 4.4 miles and added to it the rest of the way, including over a 1.7-mile, second-category climb near the end.
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It marked the largest margin of victory in a Tour time trial since 2014, but that was a 34-mile stage. Mile for mile, this was the biggest blowout in a Tour time trial since 1962, according to ProCyclingStats.com.
Pogacar dominated the rest of Tuesday’s field, finishing 73 seconds ahead of third place Wout van Aert. He was a little bit shocked to be so far behind Vingegaard.
“I was hoping to be [wearing the] yellow [jersey] today,” Pogacar said. “It’s not easy to gain two minutes [back], a little bit less, but we try.”
Vingegaard began the day with a 10-second lead over Pogacar, making it the second-closest Tour going into the final week in the last 50 years.
Only the 2008 Tour, where Frank Schleck led by seven seconds over Bernard Kohl and eight seconds over Cadel Evans, was closer at that stage.
The race for third place is now closer than for the yellow jersey. Brit Adam Yates leads Spaniard Carlos Rodriguez by five seconds after beginning the time trial with a 19-second deficit.
The Tour continues Wednesday with stage 17, one of the last two mountain stages.
It’s the most difficult of the eight total mountain stages with more than 5,000 meters (3.1 miles) of elevation gain, capped by the beyond category Col de la Luze just before a descent to the finish.
“It’s definitely not over, especially if it’s tomorrow raining,” Pogacar said. “Then I can promise you it’s going to be interesting. Two more really hard stages to come, I think the hardest two of this Tour. Anything can happen.”
Correction: An earlier version of this post incorrectly reported it was the largest Tour time trial margin of victory since 2003.