'It's not over yet' - Pogacar beaten by Evenepoel but still in total command of Tour

Tadej Pogačar conceded 28 seconds of his overall lead at the Tour de France to Remco Evenepoel on stage 16, but he remains firmly on course to carry the yellow jersey to Paris next Sunday.

Evenepoel was the clear favourite for the 26.1km time trial to Thonon-les-Bains and the world champion in the discipline duly scorched to victory, but Pogačar confessed to a degree of disappointment that he wasn’t closer to the Belgian atop the Côte de Larringes after 9.7km.

Pogačar was 15 seconds down on Evenepoel there and his deficit would almost double in the latter part of the course, where he skirted with danger when he almost ran out of road on the same right-hand bend where Florian Lipowitz crashed out of the race. 

“It was a good day,” Pogačar said of his second-place finish. “I’m a bit disappointed that on the top of the climb I was around 15 seconds behind Remco, but then I was like, ‘OK, I won’t do any risk until the finish.’”

Pogačar explained that his near-miss in the finale took place on a corner where he had been unable to take a racing line during his recon beforehand.

“In the recon there were some cars from organisation, so I could not see that corner like I wanted and I almost crashed also,” said Pogačar. 

“I hope Lipo is okay and that he will recover fast. It’s sad to see again one more GC contender out. Obviously, I wanted to go for the win, but Remco is world champion, Olympic champion, European champion, all in the TT. Chapeau to him, it was a brilliant ride.”

Pogačar remains in the yellow jersey with a lead of 4:28 over Evenepoel, while his UAE Team Emirates-XRG teammate Isaac del Toro is still third overall, albeit now 6:51. Following two-time winner Jonas Vingegaard’s abandon on Sunday, Pogačar’s rivals all appear more focused on fighting for a podium spot than the yellow jersey, but he downplayed the idea that the Tour was already a foregone conclusion.

“Yeah, it’s not over. It’s not over yet,” Pogačar said. We still have quite a week ahead of us. The gap is good, but you never know what can happen in a day, but let’s go now with good confidence and morale to the weekend and we’ll see what happens.”

There are still three mountain stages to come on this Tour, including back-to-back finales at Alpe d’Huez on stages 19 and 20. Pogačar has been without peer thus far, however, winning four stages as he closes in on emulating Jacques Anquetil, Eddy Merckx, Bernard Hinault and Miguel Induráin by landing a record-equalling fifth Tour.