'Then Vingegaard was worse than me': Remco Evenepoel turns Tour de France scare into time gain

The Belgian briefly lost contact with the group of general classification contenders during the finale to Le Lioran, but fought his way back on the descent before launching a powerful sprint with 250 metres remaining.

His acceleration carried him clear of Vingegaard and the other podium contenders. Evenepoel moved up to third overall and now sits only 30 seconds behind the Dane.

"Then Vingegaard was worse than me at the end," Evenepoel told Sporza with a grin after the finish.

What initially looked like a potentially damaging moment ultimately became a positive day for the Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe leader.

"There was a lot of pain going through my head, so there was not much room for thinking," Evenepoel said. "I just kept pushing and that was the right choice. I struggled for two or three minutes, but in the end I still finished second."

Evenepoel began to suffer after teammate Florian Lipowitz had completed a turn at the front of the chasing group. The changing rhythm of the pursuit made it difficult for him to settle into his effort.

"There were some accelerations and annoying changes of pace," he said. "That was difficult, especially because I had just moved to the front. We wanted to ride as hard as possible to bring Tadej back, but I think he still had something left for the final three kilometres."

Tadej Pogačar had already opened the decisive gap, leaving the riders behind to limit their losses and contest the remaining podium places.

Evenepoel suggested that not everybody in the group had been equally willing to contribute to the chase.

"We did not get much help from those Lidl-Trek riders again," he said, a pointed reference to stage 6 over the Tourmalet, when he had also been frustrated by their lack of cooperation in the pursuit.

Evenepoel admitted he had briefly been close to cramping when he lost contact.

"Maybe I should have pushed through to stay in the wheel because I remained at roughly the same distance for quite a while," he said.

Rather than panic, Evenepoel continued at his own pace. He limited his losses on the climb and used the descent to regain contact with Vingegaard and the other contenders.

Once he returned to the group, he moved towards the back to recover and prepare for the uphill finish.

"I saved some energy by sitting at the back and then went with 250 metres to go," he said. "I remembered the sprint from last year and knew it was better to start early if I wanted to create a gap. That worked."

Vingegaard was unable to respond to the acceleration, allowing Evenepoel to turn what had looked like a moment of weakness into a meaningful gain in the battle for second place overall.

Evenepoel was keen to ensure that his brief struggle did not overshadow the strength of his recovery.

"I hope we do not get the typically Belgian reaction of only looking for the negative," he said. "We should mainly be positive after today. I feel that I recover quite easily from hard efforts."

The Olympic champion also took encouragement from his climbing performance before his difficult spell.

"On the hardest climb I was still near the front and for a moment I even considered trying to follow Tadej," he said. "Uphill, I certainly do not think I am any worse than I used to be."

Pogačar claimed the stage victory after another decisive attack, but Evenepoel's late recovery ensured that he also emerged as one of the winners of the day.