Cyrille Guimard not predicting stage 16 time-trial to be decisive: "It is too short to make definitive differences"

With just 10 seconds separating Tadej Pogacar and Jonas Vingegaard heading into what could be a decisive stage 16 individual time-trial, Cyrille Guimard is predicting that nothing much will have been decided by the race against the clock.

"We have two super champions who vary the pleasures in terms of strategy. We have all the ingredients for this battle to be extraordinary, it has already been... and we cannot know which of the two is the strongest," says the Frenchman in his column for Cyclism'Actu. "Today, we know nothing. They are very close to each other, but since the race only requires mistakes, who will make the mistake? Tuesday, for the time trial, the members of the two clans will have a dry mouth for the three hours which will precede. The stress will be almost unbearable."

As mentioned, many are predicting that the time-trial could be decisive and the perfect opportunity for Pogacar to take the Maillot Jaune. Guimard however, isn't so sure. "Even if this time trial is demanding, it is too short to make definitive differences between the two protagonists," he explains.

"Over 22 kilometres, you can have a difference of 20 seconds, in one direction or the other, which means that the race will not yet be done," continues Guimard. "There will remain two mountain stages behind to possibly rectify the situation. Vingegaard or Pogacar? I don't know, and no one knows. So we can do it emotionally and say that we prefer Pogacar or that we prefer Vingegaard, but on the ground reality, there is no one who can say."