'On point' - Remco Evenepoel masters wind and rivals for Tour de France time trial triumph

It's one thing being the favourite for the stage win, but it's another being able to execute the game plan, and that's exactly what Remco Evenepoel (Soudal Quick-Step) did as he powered to victory on stage 5 of the Tour de France, 16 seconds ahead of Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) in second and 33 seconds on Edoardo Affini (Visma | Lease a Bike) in third.

It's the second successive year that the world and Olympic champion has won the first time trial of the Tour de France, but this one was arguably more impressive due to the influencing wind that impacted the later starters. This didn't stop the Belgian executing the plan, even with strong specialists having gone out a lot earlier in the day in more favourable conditions on the 33km course around Caen.

“I mean, yeah, you never know. Because, of course, big guys like Edoardo [Affini], you know that they can do these courses very well as well," Evenepoel said in his post-race interview. "Also, yeah, they can save a little bit more in the finals, like yesterday. So I knew I had a good chance. But of course, the legs still have to be there, and everything needs to go, yeah, as the plan is, and in the end, I think it was pretty good.”

Things were in the balance in terms of the stage win early on, as Evenepoel came through the first two time checks in second place, battling the unfavourable wind, before the Belgian found another level as the kilometres ticked by, sailing back into Caen with the tailwind now firmly on his side at a blistering speed. 

“I didn't really feel like I could, like I could go any faster. So I think in general, I'm happy with this result, of course, and with this second stage win for our team, it's super nice," Evenepoel stated. 

Evenepoel revealed that the tricky wind conditions had a significant impact on how he planned his effort, ensuring that he maximised his efforts where he could make the biggest difference, but also remained consistently strong throughout, which proved to be the key to victory.

“Yeah, I think I kind of pushed pretty steadily every slightly uphill part. I push harder than the downhills, of course, but I think my strongest point, is I kept the same pace in the end as in the first 10km so I think that really put up my my pace and the speed, and I think it's also what we we saw in the intermediate that I was always going up, and also still gaining time in the in the last seven, eight kilometers," Evenepoel explained.  "So I think, yeah, I paced it perfectly, and everything was on point. So super happy.”

It was a big day for Evenepoel in the general classification, gaining time on all of his rivals, but in particular Jonas Vingegaard who he put 1:21 into, and he now sits 2nd in the general classification at 42 seconds behind the new race leader Pogačar who will also be very satisifed with his own performance.

“Yeah, of course, I think Tadej did a very strong time trial as well. I think 17 seconds is pretty, pretty close. I think it's about half a second per kilometre. So I think compared to the Dauphine time trial here, he really made a step forward. And it shows that he's in big form, and that's the only reason why he's the guy to beat in this Tour de France," Evenepoel said as he complimented his rival and also analysed today's performance compared to the Critérium du Dauphiné time trial from June where Pogačar was clearly the third best of the three. 

"And I think, yeah, compared to all the other guys, I did what I had to do to try to take as much time as possible and to step up in the GC," Evenepoel added. "It's kind of the same situation as last year, this time after the TT. So super happy with that. And I think it's a big step forward towards the podium. But of course, it's still a very long way to go in this tour, so just very happy with my performance of today and try to keep this up.” 

Evenepoel and Soudal Quick-Step will hope that this stage victory, a second for the team after Tim Merlier on sprint success on stage 3, catalyses further success in this year's Tour de France, particularly from a general classification perspective, although the Belgian remained very clear that this is only the start and the landscape of the fight for yellow will change significantly over the next sixteen stages. 

"I think today was the first step for me to put a good GC result in towards Paris. But I think this is not where the tour ends," Evenepoel said. 

"Of course, everybody knows what's coming up next week and the week after next week, there's still a long way to go. But yeah, it's already very nice to take a stage win. It means that the two guys that are here to take stage wins, won from our team. So yeah, we're kind of relaxed now and now it's all focusing on this podium in Paris.”