'Quite close to perfection' – Tadej Pogačar strikes huge blow in Tour de France battle with Jonas Vingegaard in time trial

Tadej Pogačar sped back into the Tour de France yellow jersey in the stage 5 time trial north of Caen, asserting his control of the race once again. He gained 65 seconds on Jonas Vingegaard, landing a mental blow to his biggest rival, at least for one day.

Pogačar passed through the first checkpoint of the flat 33km course in Caen, within a second of Evenepoel. He was also already 19 up on Vingegaard, gaps that grew to 8 and 30 seconds after 12.5km and 18 and 49 after 16.5km.

At the finish, Pogačar took back the maillot jaune from Mathieu van der Poel and shook up the GC. Pogačar was just 16.7 seconds slower than Evenepoel and more importantly, took more than a minute on Vingegaard, who ended his ride in 13th place.

He also moved into the lead of the green points classification after his two second places and stage 4 victory and retook the polka-dot mountains jersey to underline his dominance of the Tour.

"The most important [jersey] is yellow, and the most important is to have it on the Champs-Elysées at the finish line," Pogačar said.

"Now, it's not that important. It feels good, but the important thing is to have it in Paris."

Pogačar came off as a distinct third-best among the trio of Tour favourites during their most recent time trial showdown one month ago at the Critérium du Dauphiné.

There, he shed 49 seconds in 17.4km to world and Olympic time trial champion Evenepoel and 28 to Vingegaard.

This time, he passed through the first 8km checkpoint of the flat 33km course in Caen, within a second of Evenepoel. He was also already 19 seconds up on Vingegaard, gaps that grew to 8 and 30 seconds after 12.5km and 18 and 49 after 16.5km.

At the finish, Pogačar was back in yellow as expected – he was always the favourite to wrest back the maillot jaune from Mathieu van der Poel. The road world champion completed the course just 16.7 seconds slower than Evenepoel and, more importantly, took a massive 1:05 on Vingegaard, who ended his ride in 13th place.

'I always have eyes on everyone, not just one guy'

Beyond the finish line, Cyclingnews saw how Vingegaard stopped in the shade to catch his breath. Pogačar, who started two minutes after the Dane but finished soon after him stopped nearby.

Both were called to the podium area and they warmed down just a few metres apart. Vingegaard looked ahead, head bowed, avoiding eye contact with Pogačar.

Vingegaard is now 1:13 down on Pogačar in the general classification, while Evenepoel moved up seven places to second at 42 seconds. Much to the delight of the French cycling fans, Kévin Vauquelin (Arkéa-B&B Hotels) is fourth overall at 59 seconds. He hails from Bayeux, just 30km from the time trial in Caen.

UAE Team Emirates-XRG directeur sportif Andrej Hauptman called it a time trial "quite close to perfection", while Pogačar himself said he was "super happy" with his day's work.

Pogačar had hoped to gain time on Vingegaard but not that much. Having gained time on the Dane via bonus seconds on the hilly finishes of stages 2 and 4, and now in the time trial, Pogačar now has the upper hand in the GC battle between the two men who have shared the past five Tour de France titles.

"For sure I was surprised, I'm not going to lie," Pogačar said.

"I was not expecting to be so far ahead of him in this TT, I was expecting him to lose less time. Maybe he didn't have the greatest day out there. It was a flat TT and he's the lightest of us three, so not best suited for him."

Pogačar was fooled by his sudden GC lead over Vingegaard. Evenepoel has suddenly become his closest rivals but he is expecting Vingegaard and his Visma-Lease a Bike team to fight back very soon.

"I always have eyes on everyone, not just one guy. But I mostly have eyes on myself and how I ride," Pogačar warned.

"You can't discount all the GC riders in the top 10. Even after today, I always need to keep them in mind and look at them.

"Jonas is going to try the most; he is most hungry to gain back time. He's in super good shape, and his team is in really good form. Maybe he will try something even tomorrow on stage 6 or the next day."

Pogačar came off an unexpected third-best among the trio of Tour favourites during their most recent time trial showdown one month ago at the Critérium du Dauphiné.

He shed 49 seconds in 17.4km to World and Olympic time trial champion Evenepoel and 28 to Vingegaard. It proved to be a perfect wake-up call before the Tour de France.

"In the Dauphiné I paced myself completely wrong," Pogačar admitted.

"I was really disappointed and looked at every detail and worked on it. I also probably wasn't hungry enough. I trained really well at altitude in Isola 2000 on the TT bike, so I started to believe in myself, I knew I could do better.

"I was in a good rhythm from start to finish of this TT. When I heard I was gaining time, I got more motivation and mentally I felt super strong all the way to finish. I'm really happy with my performance."

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