LAVAL, France — Defending champion Tadej Pogacar powered to victory in Wednesday’s time trial at the Tour de France to assert himself as the odds-on favourite at the three-week race.
Pogacar was 44 seconds faster than last year’s runner-up, Primoz Roglic, while 2018 champion Geraint Thomas dropped 1 minute, 18 seconds. Richard Carapaz, a former Giro champion with big ambition at the Tour this year, was 1:44 off the pace.Van der Poel has limited abilities in high mountains and is not expected to remain in the mix once the race reaches the Alps later this week.
Riding in an aerodynamic position, Pogacar perfectly negotiated the sharp curves of the technical finale and covered the route in 32 minutes, at an average speed of 51 kph . Pogacar was 19 seconds faster than time trial specialist Stefan Kung. Jonas Vingegaard was third, 27 seconds behind.Time-trial specialist Tony Martin, a teammate of Roglic at Jumbo-Visma, was among the early starters. Under grey skies but dry roads, the four-time individual time trial world champion played it safe following his big crash earlier in the race and crossed the line in 35 minutes, 33 seconds.