Time trial world champion Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-QuickStep) suffered a "really bad day" in the stage 13 mountain time trial at the Tour de France, finishing 2:39 down on winner Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) after struggling on the climb to Peyragudes.
The master time trialist had naturally been a hot topic of conversation going into the race's second effort against the clock, not least because he'd chosen to use a time trial bike instead of the popular choice of a road bike, but no equipment choice could have helped him as he suffered with a lack of power throughout the ride.
Evenepoel finished 12th on the day, 2:39 from Pogačar, with Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) adding insult to injury when he passed the Belgian before the finish line, despite starting a full two minutes after him.
The only small positive for Evenepoel was that, despite the time loss, he did not drop down from third on GC, thanks to the already large time gaps and the performances of his competitors, but he is now 7:24 away from yellow, so that wasn't particularly consoling.
"It was bad, I think that was obvious," were some of Evenepoel's few words after the stage. "With a normal feeling I should end up in the top three on a day like today, that was really bad."
This was Evenepoel's second difficult day in a row, after being dropped and fighting back on stage 12, eventually finishing seventh on the Hautacam and losing time on the rest of the podium contenders.
Despite the two poor performances in a row – for the rider who is returning from severe injuries over the winter – he did not point to any specific reason for his struggles.
"No idea. I hope there will not be an explanation – that it's just now a few days like this and hopefully not tomorrow," he said. "My start was pretty good, but then after five minutes in the climb I was feeling and I just could not keep pushing the power and I had a really bad performance."
The world and Olympic champion being passed by Vingegaard before the line will probably be one of the defining moments of stage 13, and a sign of just how bad things went for Evenepoel, but it didn't come as a surprise to him.
"Nothing," he said of what he thought in that moment.
"I think I was already feeling pretty bad before that, with the pace that I was riding it was normal that he was going to pass me. It was a really bad day and a really bad performance for myself, and all the rest at this moment, I really don't care."
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