Remco Evenepoel raced to victory with a hell pace for the first individual time trial of the Tour de France around Caen. Tadej Pogacar finished second and takes over the yellow jersey. Jonas Vingegaard lost a lot of time and is the big loser.
Even in the jersey of the time trial world champion, Evenepoel went on the route as a ninth and the top favorite. At the first in the meantime after eight kilometers, Luke Plapp, who, however, had broken down, put the best time of the day. This was followed by Evenepoel (+ 2.6 seconds) and Pogacar (+3.3 seconds). The gap from Vingegaard (+22 seconds) was surprisingly large here. Mathieu van der Poel was already 29 seconds behind, so it was clear that the Dutch could not defend the yellow jersey – but that was not a surprise.
Lipowitz strong sixth
Only in the third and last time five kilometers before the finish was Evenepoel in front for the first time, the 25-year-old had apparently divided the strength well. At the finish line, Evenepoel then had 16 seconds ahead of Pogacar. Vingegaard (13th place) lost 1:21 minutes, van der Poel 1:44 minutes (18th place). The German shooting star Florian Lipowitz took a strong 6th place.
In the overall ranking, Pogacar now leads with 44 seconds ahead of Evenepoel. Vingegaard slips to fourth place. Lipowitz is now ninth. Curious: Pogacar is now also in the sprint rating. With this, the Slovenian “carries” the green jersey next to the Maillot Jaune and the dotted mountain jersey.
Large chainrings, high Average stamp
On the 33 -kilometer course in Normandy, only 200 meters of altitude had to be overcome, and the professionals went on wide streets. This was correspondingly high. Evenepoel completed the course with an average of 54.0 km/h. For the high-speed course, the professionals had very large translations assemble by their mechanics. For the technology nerds: Evenepoel started with a 64 chainring (cassette 11-30), Pogacar drove a 62 sheet (cassette 11-34), Vingegaard with a 64 sheet (cassette 10-28).
Pogacar when time trial around Caen
Bauhaus, Politt and Schachmann save forces
In contrast to the classification drivers, many professionals let go of the time trial easily and saved grains for upcoming stages. For helpers or sprinter, it was usually only a question of staying within the time limit. Phil Bauhaus, who had sprinted in third place at the 3rd stage, spoke of one in the target interview with the sports show of one “Relatively relaxed day”. And how different the priorities are, Bauhaus also explained: he trains the time trial “not at all”,, “I was sitting three to four times a year on the racing on the time bike”.
Nils Politt, who has already been a German champion in time trial twice, had already focused on the upcoming tasks for his captain Pogacar. “I tried to keep a little tension on my feet, but I didn’t go full throttle”according to the Cologne conclusion. It was no different with the current German time trial champion Maximilian Schachmann: “We are here to win stages and drive to the overall ranking. So today it was a bit like a day of rest”according to the teammate from Evenepoel.
Sportschau Tourfunk, July 9th, 2025 7:50 p.m.
6. Stage with a climb
The 6th stage could lead to the exchange of classics specialists such as van der Poel with the tour favorites Pogacar and Vingegaard, as it were twice on this tour. On Thursday it will be over 201 kilometers from Bayeux to Vire Normandy. It goes up and down and off, which can also be read on the 3,550 meters of altitude to be completed. And after six mountain ratings, there is a short, steep climb. It is also quite possible that for the first time an outlier group was successful on this tour.