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Van der Poel clings to yellow as Pogačar wins Tour’s first time trial

June 30, 2021
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Tadej Pogačar put himself in the driver’s seat to repeat as Tour de France champion by dominating Wednesday’s first time trial. Mathieu van der Poel rode brilliantly in his longest career race against the clock to keep the yellow jersey by eight seconds over the Slovenian. Notable GC rides were crash-sore Primoz Roglič’s brave fifth place to move him into the top-10, teammate Wout Van Aert’s effort that put him on the GC podium in place of Julian Alaphilippe, and Rigoberto Uran, Alexey Lutsenko and Pierre Latour’s chronos that ensured that they remain some of Pogla’s closest rivals.

You can watch the 108th Tour de France on FloBikes.

The Course

The first chrono was a bit shorter than the second at 27.2 km. There were some ripples in it, including a kilometre of 5.2 percent soon after the start in Changé and 300 metre of 5.3 percent soon before the finish in Laval. The two intermediate time checks were at 8.5 and 17 km marks. There was rain in the latter half of the day.

Mikkel Bjerg (Denmark/UAE-Team Emirates) took over the hot seat from Sepp Kuss, who had posted a time of 33:57. Bjerg was 33:01.

Michael Woods is trying to salvage something from his crash-marred Tour, but it probably won’t happen in a time trial.

Woods leaves the start house on Wednesday.

Hugo Houle is two spots ahead of Woods on GC. Houle’s time on Wednesday was 33:58, good for 34th place–not too shabby.

Hugo Houle is around the middle of the GC.

Two EF Education-Nippo riders–Stefan Bissegger and Magnus Cort–came close to Bjerg, but the Dane remained ensconced on the throne. Bissegger did well to avoid a crash in a wet corner.

European champion Stefan Küng (Switzerland/Groupama-FDJ) was one of the favourites. But when Swiss rider was on the course he suddenly didn’t have Bjerg to beat, but Deceuninck-Quick Step’s Italian Mattia Cattaneo, who was fastest with 32:55. Küng had a challenge from his three-minute man Pierre Rolland: “catch me if you can.”

Küng smashed Cattaneo’s time by 36 seconds.

The top-20 started with Roglič, last year’s runner-up trying to make up time lost in Monday’s crash.

It was a big day for the Danes, and two of them, Jonas Vingegaard and Kasper Asgreen, had faster first intermediate times than Küng, while Rogla was only slightly slower. The Slovenian was also fourth fastest at the second intermediate split. Roglič caught his 2:00 man Lucas Hamilton inside the final kilometre.

Clad in the white of the best young rider, Pogačar was going great guns, resetting the fastest time at the first intermediate time check. Van Aert was seven seconds slower. The reigning Tour champion also stopped the clock with the fastest time at the second time check. There was no stopping the Slovenian, who was 19 seconds faster than Küng, 31 seconds better than van der Poel and 1:44 quicker than Ineos’ top rider Richard Carapaz, who dropped down the GC six places.

Thursday is a sprint stage.

2021 Tour de France Stage 5
1) Tadej Pogačar (Slovenia/UAE-Emirates) 32:00
2) Stefan Küng (Switzerland/Groupama-FDJ) +0:19
3) Jonas Vingegaard (Denmark/Jumbo-Visma) +0:27
34) Hugo Houle (Canada/Astana-Premier Tech) +1:58
102) Guillaume Boivin (Canada/Israel Start-up Nation) +3:59
109) Michael Woods (Canada/Israel Start-up Nation) +4:08

2021 Tour de France GC
1) Mathieu van der Poel (The Netherlands/Alpecin-Fenix) 16:51:41
2) Tadej Pogačar (Slovenia/UAE-Emirates) +0:08
3) Wout Van Aert (Denmark/Jumbo-Visma +0:30
4) Julian Alaphilippe (France/Deceuninck-Quick Step) +0:48
5) Alexey Lutsenko (Kazakhstan/Astana-Premier Tech) +1:21
6) Pierre Latour (France/Team TotalEnergies) +1:28
7) Rigoberto Uran (Colombia/EF Education-First) +1:29
8) Jonas Vingegaard (Denmark/Jumbo-Visma) +1:43
9) Richard Carapaz (Ecuador/Ineos Grenadiers) +1:44
10) Primoz Roglič (Slovenia/Jumbo-Visma +1:48
56) Guillaume Boivin (Canada/Israel Start-up Nation) +9:32
72) Hugo Houle (Canada/Astana-Premier Tech) +12:30
90) Michael Woods (Canada/Israel Start-up Nation) +14:53