Following two flat sprint stages, which haven't always gone entirely to plan for the Tour de France leader, Tadej Pogačar will be called back into action in the GC battle on Friday as he and his challengers for the maillot jaune tackle the race's first time trial.
He's come through stages 5 and 6 unscathed – narrowly avoiding a fall on Wednesday before finding himself without UAE Team Emirates teammates among the mid-stage echelons on Thursday.
But now attention turns to Friday's stage 7, run between Nuits-Saint-Georges and Gevrey-Chambertin. At 25.3km long and with 300 metres of elevation gain, the stage is far from the longest or hardest test against the clock in Tour history.
However, the stage may well mark the biggest shakeup at the top of the general classification until the race hits the Pyrenees on July 13. As such, and with a total of just 59km time trial kilometres in the race, any time gained and lost in Burgundy will be significant.
Pogačar will head into the stage defending a 45-second lead on second-placed Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-QuickStep), the reigning world time trial champion, while two-time Tour winner Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) lies 50 seconds adrift in third overall.
"I checked it out a really long time ago," Pogačar said in the flash interview following stage 6. "I must say I like the parcours. It's a nice time trial. It's quite fast but you also need to be really powerful. It's not all about being aerodynamic. It's going to be interesting to see how it goes tomorrow."
The day is a largely flat one but does come with a bump in the middle. It's not a major climb like the uphill run to Combloux, which hosted part one of the 2023 Tour meltdown where Pogačar shed 1:38 to Vingegaard, all but losing the race.
Instead, the 4.7km of uphill to Curley averages a mere 3%, though at inconsistent gradients all the way up – certainly not enough of a challenge to warrant switching to the climbing bike. Pogačar, in addition to his UAE Team Emirates team sports manager Joxean 'Matxin' Fernandez, tipped Evenepoel for success on the course.
"I think tomorrow the favourite is Remco, for sure," Pogačar said. "He's the world champion and he's shown many times that he can beat everyone. I think he's the one to look to, but I think I can also do a pretty solid time trial."
Matxin called the route "perfect" for the second-placed Belgian, putting him above Vingegaard.
"This time trial is also really different from last year," he said. "It's really flat and, in my opinion, the profile is perfect for Evenepoel. In another year it's more for climbers, but this one maybe not.
"Jonas is one of the best in the world. He'll obviously put in a good performance but in terms of condition and type of route, my favourite is Evenepoel. Afterwards, we'll understand how the level is among the general classification contenders."
In order to improve all aspects of his time trialling and avert another Combloux – Pogačar beat Filippo Ganna (Ineos Grenadiers) in Perugia at May's Giro d'Italia and then finished second to the Italian on the flatter test at Lake Garda – he has worked diligently with his team and material providers.
Furthermore, there has been a time-saving and energy-saving 'marginal gain'. This year's Tour, with Pogačar having already worn yellow on four of the six stages, has also seen his team limit his media duties in a bid to shorten his workdays and maximise his recovery, with the Slovenian skipping Thursday's post-stage press conference altogether
Matxin detailed some of the ways both rider and team have worked on the time trial this season.
"He's been different in his work. He's worked more on the track tests, in the wind tunnel, on his position," the Spaniard said. "He's done more hours on his time trial bike. Working more and for more hours, down to the last day, is really important.
"It's a lighter bike, too. The weight will be really important in the last time trial in Nice, a really hard time trial, but for this one, it's more about the aerodynamics. It's been about finding the perfect balance between comfort and aerodynamics.
"It's aerodynamics, aerodynamics, aerodynamics and then you stop in a comfortable position."
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