"I need to keep an eye on Remco" - Tadej Pogacar sees Evenepoel emerging as main Maillot Jaune challenger at 2024 Tour de France

For the first time ever, the Big 4 of Tadej Pogacar, Jonas Vingegaard, Primoz Roglic and Remco Evenepoel are competing at the Tour de France in 2024. Whilst Pogacar is living up to his billing of pre-race favourite, it's somewhat surprisingly Evenepoel who is emerging as the Slovenian's nearest challenger.

Widely thought of as the less proven of the Big 4, Evenepoel has been looking as good as he ever has so far this Grand Tour. Having taken the first Tour de France stage win of his career on the stage 7 individual time-trial, the Soudal - Quick-Step leader is 2nd overall with a third of the Tour de France completed, just 33 seconds behind the Maillot Jaune wearing Pogacar.

“I started really well, with good legs. I went a bit too hard on the climb and then on the rolling part on the top I think I suffered the most. Towards the end was a nice parcours also and I really enjoyed today’s time trial. To lose against Remco, World Champion, the best time trialist right now, it’s still a pretty good feeling," reflects Pogacar of the time-trial, having crossed the line in 2nd, losing 12 seconds to the ITT world champion, in his post-stage interview. "I can be satisfied. I would have loved to have taken a stage win today but against Remco it’s a bit tough. But I can gained time on Primoz and Jonas and the other guys so I can be really happy."

With the aforementioned Vingegaard and Roglic now both over a minute down on Pogacar at 1:15 and 1:36 respectively, the UAE Team Emirates leader is beginning to see Evenepoel as his main challenger for the Maillot Jaune. "I need to keep an eye on Remco now, he is a bit closer," Pogacar admits. "But also Jonas and Primoz I think they can show their good legs in the next mountain stages."

"I think in this Tour de France, the hard stages are coming really towards the end and the bodies will be really tired. So we could see bigger gaps," the Slovenian concludes. "I would say that right now it’s really close and for me it’s better to be in the lead than be chasing. I already did two good time trials at the Giro, yet I rate this performance somehow higher as I only lost to the current World Champion by just a few seconds and was still above some tough guys like Primoz and Jonas. I think the TT in Nice should be nice for me too, as I know the roads quite well."