After four thrilling, dramatic days of racing at the Tour de France comes the first of two races of truth, with the stage 5 time trial starting and finishing in Caen set to reignite the GC battle on a flat 33km race against the clock.
Caen, Normandy, plays host as it celebrates its 1000th anniversary, and its streets will see the 181 remaining riders of the Tour de France roll off the start ramp and power to the finish, with a relatively straightforward route heading northwest out to Colomby-Anguerny and back to the city centre.
It's long been a feature of the Tour, appearing 35 times in the race since 1905, but not since 2006, when Óscar Freire won the bunch sprint ahead of Tom Boonen. 19 years on, it's the yellow jersey contenders who will do battle on its historic streets.
Time trial prowess has long been an essential asset for many a GC contender, but in 2025, all three of the main favourites are more than capable in the discipline. Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG), Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) and Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-QuickStep) are, of course, that trio, and all of them have won a time trial at the Tour before in their career.
Evenepoel with time to make up
The world and Olympic ITT champion, Evenepoel, is set to roll off the start ramp as favourite for the day, and the first of the three GC favourites, but with the most work to do, having lost time on GC to his two rivals among the echelon chaos on stage 1 in Lille.
As the best time triallist in the world, and having dominated both his rivals by 20 and 48 seconds at last month's Critérium du Dauphiné, Evenepoel will be confident, but he needs to make up a 58-second deficit to overtake both Pogačar and Vingegaard and move into the yellow jersey. It's perhaps unlikely, but possible.
"The difference to the yellow jersey is 58 seconds, so a yellow dream is possible. I have the legs to win," said Evenepoel after finishing seventh on stage 4.
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"Unfortunately, I was unable to do a TT recon due to my injury in the winter. But my coach, Koen Pelgrim, put a video of the course in our WhatsApp group, so I'll watch it on my iPad later on the way to the hotel.
"Then on Wednesday morning, I'll do a nice recon. It seems to be pretty straightforward and so not technical at all. There's a small climb at the start, but nothing crazy. It should really suit me, and I'm really motivated to do very well and gain back quite some time."
Vingegaard's potential chance at yellow after stage 5
Vingegaard, though not of the level of Evenepoel on paper in a flat effort, is a strong time triallist, and seems to bring his best at the Tour's races against the clock, with his self-declared best victory being the ITT up to Combloux in 2023.
While not able to contest Pogačar in the mountains at the Dauphiné, the Dane did have him well beaten in the time trial, so he could be eyeing a possible early charge into the yellow jersey if he has another one of those special days on the TT bike.
Vingegaard will start stage 5 in third overall, with an eight-second deficit and Pogačar in his sights. Teammate Matteo Jorgenson should be similarly strong, as the men in yellow and black's second-highest rider on GC.
"I take it day by day, obviously I'm happy with how things went [on stage 4]. Now on to tomorrow, I'll just try to do as good a time trial as possible, and then we'll see," said Vingegaard at the team bus in Rouen.
"It's only 8 seconds, so everything can happen. It's also that Van der Poel, or Pogačar, or somebody else is doing a good time trial, and you never know," he replied, when asked if he would be in yellow in Caen.
Pogačar and a point to prove after the Dauphiné
On the back of an explosive stage win, Pogačar arrives as the unknown TT quantity, with his overall form looking as infallible as ever, but the Dauphiné time trial was the only place where he has shown weakness nearly all season, getting his pacing wrong and losing big time to his rivals.
He had a month to work on that while at altitude camp in Isola 2000, and everyone knows he can find another level when the spoils of the Tour are on offer, so Evenepoel and Vingegaard will be expecting the worst, and his best.
His team were unconcerned by what happened in June, knowing full well that stage 5 going well will remove that history entirely.
"The time trial is very important. We need to do a good job today, then we need a perfect time trial from Tadej," UAE sports director Andrej Hauptman told Cyclingnews before stage 4.
"We did everything we needed to be as ready as possible for the TT, and tomorrow we will see where we are. He was fourth in Dauphiné, so it was not so bad, huh?"
The man who is currently in yellow is Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck), and though he will start last, he's expecting to lose the jersey as he will roll down the ramp on the same GC time as Pogačar.
"I guess after the TT in Dauphiné, he wants to show he is also ready to do a good TT tomorrow," said Van der Poel in his yellow jersey press conference. "If we are being realistic, it will be my last day in yellow tomorrow. That's OK, I enjoyed it."
Pogačar is expecting a bounce back from TT world and Olympic champion Evenepoel on stage 5, but will just be doing his full gas effort for the entire 33 kilometres and seeing where he ends up. He'll likely end up in yellow, but knows not to get complacent.
"I don’t check the GC now, but for now, tomorrow is a real test for everybody," said Pogačar in his winner's press conference.
"I think Remco will even progress through this race. In my opinion, tomorrow is the perfect time trial for him; he can take some seconds back. No doubt, he is the best time trial rider in the world.
"Tomorrow, I’ll go full gas from the start to the finish line and see where this places me, but tomorrow is the race of truth, and we will see results. Remco – you cannot count him out or anyone else who is around one minute. It can turn around pretty fast."
Normally, you would get a mix of time trial purists against the overall contenders on a flat TT like stage 5's, but that looks unlikely now, with former world champion Filippo Ganna (Ineos Grenadiers) and Swiss specialist Stefan Bissegger (Decathlon AG2R La Mondiale) crashing out on stage 1. Wednesday is all about the GC fight and the futures of Pogačar, Vingegaard and Evenepoel at this so far thrilling 2025 Tour de France.
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James Moultrie is a gold-standard NCTJ journalist who joined Cyclingnews as a News Writer in 2023 after originally contributing as a freelancer for eight months, during which time he also wrote for Eurosport, Rouleur and Cycling Weekly. Prior to joining the team he reported on races such as Paris-Roubaix and the Giro d’Italia Donne for Eurosport and has interviewed some of the sport’s top riders in Chloé Dygert, Lizzie Deignan and Wout van Aert. Outside of cycling, he spends the majority of his time watching other sports – rugby, football, cricket, and American Football to name a few.
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