'The legs are there' - Evenepoel still believes in yellow in Tour de France TT

It could have been worse. Remco Evenepoel may have conceded another handful of seconds to Tadej Pogačar on the punchy finale to stage 4 of the Tour de France in Rouen, but the Belgian believes he has given himself a fighting chance of taking the yellow jersey in Wednesday’s time trial in Caen. “It's possible, it's possible,” Evenepoel said.

At day’s end, Evenepoel coughed up three seconds in real time and another ten seconds in bonuses to Pogačar, but he will feel that was a solid outcome on terrain that was tailored more to the Slovenian’s explosiveness than to his own qualities as a rouleur. 

Wisely, the Soudal-QuickStep man resisted the temptation to try to match Pogačar’s rasping acceleration on the final climb of the Rampe-Saint-Hilaire with 5km to go, where only Jonas Vingegaard dared to follow. 

Over the other side, however, Evenepoel played a key role in pacing a seven-man group back up to the two favourites for the Tour. The Belgian even tried to slip away before the last kick to the line, though he had no answer to Pogačar’s violent sprint effort in the closing metres.

Evenepoel would place seventh on the stage, three seconds down on Pogačar and Vingegaard. In the overall standings, he is now ninth, 58 seconds off Pogačar, who is level on time with the yellow jersey Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck).

“I was always right up front, the team did a great job,” Evenepoel told Sporza. “At the end, I made a small attempt, but that was perhaps unnecessary. I wanted to see how the others would react, but perhaps I should have saved myself for the sprint.

“It was 20km of twists and turns in the final, it was hectic. But it went well. I was in front with Max Schachmann at the point where I needed to be up front, so super well done to the team today. In the end, I also did well at the end, but at the finish, I was really sore. It hurt.”

Evenepoel lines up as the outstanding favourite to win the stage 5 time trial to Caen on Wednesday, and the 33km distance gives the world and Olympic champion in the discipline a fighting chance at taking the yellow jersey despite the time he conceded on the opening day of the Tour.

“I have the legs to win,” said Evenepoel, who confirmed that he has not reconnoitred the flat and fast course.

“Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to reconnoitre the time trial due to my injury last winter. But [coach] Koen Pelgrim has made a video of the course, and I will watch it on my iPad later.

“We're sleeping close to the course, so tomorrow morning I’ll go and explore it myself. It's quite flat, so it should suit me.”

When the Tour route was announced last October, the Caen time trial looked an obvious chance for Evenepoel to take the yellow jersey, and that remains an objective despite trailing Pogačar by 58 seconds and Vingegaard by 50 seconds.

Evenepoel put more than two seconds per kilometre into Pogačar in the individual time trial at the Critérium du Dauphiné a month ago. It’s difficult to imagine Pogačar delivering as subdued a display on Wednesday, but Evenepoel was still upbeat about the prospect of taking yellow. 

“The legs are there, that's for sure,” Evenepoel told RTBF. “I hope I'll have the same legs on Wednesday because there's a great opportunity to be had. There's a chance to make up the 58 seconds that separate me from Pogačar. It's completely flat."

“We saw the advantage I managed to gain over Tadej in the Dauphiné, even though it was a completely different time trial. It's very flat, not technical at all, so I'm going to push as hard as I can, and I hope it will be enough to go for the yellow jersey.”