18/07/2023

Jonas Vingegaard a dominant winner on stage 16 time-trial and takes firm grip of Tour de France

In what was posed as a potentially decisive individual time-trial it was Jonas Vingegaard that made a massive move to take a firm grasp on the overall lead at the Tour de France after 16 stages.

The first day of the final week of the Tour de France and one which everyone has talked about. The only individual time-trial of the 2023 Tour de France, featuring only 22 kilometres in distance as Tadej Pogacar and Jonas Vingegaard look to make a potentially decisive difference.

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Early on, the likes of Gianni Moscon, Dries Devenyns, Nikias Arndt and Mads Pedersen all had various amounts of time in the hot seat.

It was French national time-trial champion, Remi Cavagna though, who laid out the first real marker time, beating Pedersen's time by 25 seconds with his effort of 35:42.

One of the world's premier time-trialists, Stefan Kung threatened to break the time of Cavagna. Although after starting positively, the Swiss opted for a bike change and seemed to lose all his momentum, eventually coming home 52 seconds down.

Wout van Aert was the next to mount a serious challenge to Cavagna, going quickest at the third intermediate time check and by the finish line he had edged out the Frenchman by 15 seconds, holding the lead when Tadej Pogacar and Jonas Vingegaard left the start ramp.

Simon Yates had started brightly and was looking to move up in the GC, reaching the first time check second quickest.

After Tadej Pogacar then reached the first time check the quickest by 25 seconds, Jonas Vingegaard went a further 16 seconds quicker to lay down a real marker early on.

Pogacar again was the quickest to reach the second time check, 19 seconds faster than anyone previously followed by a notable bike change.

Vingegaard then reached the second time check 31 seconds clear of the Slovenian and opted against changing his bike, instead the Jumbo-Visma continued to press home his advantage.

The Dane had extended his leave even further to over a minute by the third time check.

So much quicker than his main rival was Vingegaard, the reigning Tour de France winner actually began to catch Pogacar as they headed towards the finish line.