Olympic champion Remco Evenepoel stormed to victory in Tuesday’s 26.1km individual time-trial at the Tour de France to shave valuable seconds off Tadej Pogacar’s overall lead.
Belgian Evenepoel, 26, blasted over the stage 16 course along the shores of Lake Geneva 28 seconds quicker than reigning champion Pogacar in second.
Everyone else finished more than a minute back, with Dane Mattias Skjelmose taking third at 1min 04sec.
That performance by the world and Olympic time-trial champion — on Belgium’s national holiday — cut four-time Tour winner Pogacar’s overall lead to 4min 32sec.
It was Evenepoel’s second successive stage victory after he triumphed on Sunday’s mountainous 15th stage.
It was his fourth Tour stage victory overall, and his third in time-trials.
He also extended the gap to third-placed Isaac del Toro to more than two minutes.
But it was a miserable day for Evenepoel’s Red Bull-Bora Hansgrohe team-mate Florian Lipowitz.
Two days after two-time former winner Jonas Vingegaard crashed out of the Tour while sitting second overall, German Lipowitz went down hard on a bend and was forced out of the race.
He had been fifth overall until that point and had set the fourth fastest time in the three intermediate time-checks.
But several minutes after he crashed, Lipowitz was escorted to a medical vehicle holding his left arm.
Both Pogacar and Del Toro had a scare going through the same bend where Lipowitz fell but managed to stay upright.
Source: Khaleej Times