"I was pretty sure I had a puncture" - Remco Evenepoel survives late scare to take ITT win on Tour de France debut

The world champion in the discipline, Remco Evenepoel started the day as pre-race favourite ahead of the first individual time trial of the 2024 Tour de France. That's how things turned out too, as the Belgian put time into all his Maillot Jaune rivals, taking the first stage win of his Tour career.

"It’s crazy!" the Soudal - Quick-Step leader reflected in his post-stage interview. "I was on a good day, the climb was pretty tough. I wanted to start fast, and I had to keep something for the climb which wasn’t easy. The descent, when you’re on the limit, it was pretty technical and fast. I enjoyed every metre of this TT, and coming out with this win is simply amazing. I’m very happy."

In the end, Evenepoel put 12 seconds into Tadej Pogacar, 34 into Primoz Roglic and 37 into Jonas Vingegaard. Could it have been even more though? With just over 2km of his effort to go, the Belgian put his arm in the air, slowed and seemed to have a gearing issue. According to the man himself however, Evenepoel believed he had suffered a puncture. 

"I was pretty sure I had a puncture actually, maybe someone dropped some glass, it made exactly the same sound like a puncture, so I was a bit scared," he expains of the incident. "But after a few hundred metres further I knew nothing was wrong, so I had to keep going, with a bit of scaredness in my head. I thought it was a slow puncture maybe. I wasn’t too sure in the last corners, but I had to take risks because I knew Tadej was close to me. 13 seconds is amazing. It was a close one, but I just wanted to win today. So I’m very proud."

Whilst it wasn't quite enough to claw the Maillot Jaune from Pogacar's shoulders, Evenepoel is now just 33 seconds behind the race leader. "We weren’t really thinking about the time gaps on GC, we just wanted to take the win," Evenepoel concludes. "That’s done, so a perfect day for me and my team. Took some time on the others, so mission accomplished, so now we have to focus on tomorrow and Sunday. Tadej is going to be pretty unreachable, but it’s racing, you never know what will happen. The more into the race I go, the better I’ll feel. We’ll focus more on the podium probably, and we just have to go for it and enjoy this Tour."