Remco Evenepoel (Soudal - Quick Step) celebrates his first stage win at the Tour de France and thus completes his collection of victories at the Giro d'Italia, Vuelta a Espana and the Tour of France. Despite a scary moment shortly before the finish, the time trial world champion won by twelve seconds ahead of Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates) and 34 seconds ahead of Primoz Roglic (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe). Fourth place went to Jonas Vingegaard (Visma | Lease a Bike). The defending champion lost 25 seconds to his great rival Pogacar, whose lead over Evenepoel in the overall standings has now shrunk to 33 seconds. Pogacar now has a cushion of 1:15 minutes on Vingegaard.
False defect alarm at Evenepoel
Shortly before the finish, it looked as if Pogacar might win the time trial after all, because Remco Evenepoel suspected a defect on his time trial bike. The Belgian gesticulated wildly, but was able to ride to the finish without changing his bike. He himself thought he had a puncture, as he explained in the winner's interview.
"I was sure that I had broken down. Maybe someone dropped their glasses on the track or hit the fence, I don't know. It was exactly the same noise as a puncture. So I was a bit worried. But after a few hundred metres I knew that everything was fine. Then I drove on with a bit of fear in my head, because I thought it might be a slow defect. So I wasn't so sure in the last few bends. But I had to take risks because I knew that Tadej (Pogacar) wasn't far behind, but to win in the end is fantastic," said Evenepoel.
Tour de France 2024 - Results: the top 10 of stage 7
- Remco Evenepoel (Soudal - Quick Step) 28:52
- Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates) +0:12
- Primoz Roglic (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) +0:34
- Jonas Vingegaard (Visma | Lease a Bike) +0:37
- Victor Campenaerts (Lotto-Dstny) +0:52
- Kevin Vauquelin (Arkea-B&B Hotels) +0:52
- Matteo Jorgenson (Visma | Lease a Bike) +0:54
- Joao Almeida (UAE Team Emirates) +0:57
- Ben Healy (EF Education EasyPost) +0:59
- Stefan Küng (Groupama-FDJ) +1:00
The current standings in the overall standings
- Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates) 27:16:23
- Remco Evenepoel (Soudal - Quick Step) +0:33
- Jonas Vingegaard (Visma | Lease a Bike) +1:15
- Primoz Roglic (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) +1:36
- Juan Ayuso (UAE Team Emirates) +2:16
- Joao Almeida (UAE Team Emirates) +2:17
- Carlos Rodriguez (Ineos Grenadiers) +2:31
- Mikel Landa (Soudal - Quick Step) +3:35
- Matteo Jorgenson (Visma | Lease a Bike) +4:03
- Aleksandr Vlasov (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) +4:36
How the 7th stage of the Tour de France 2024 went
Mark Cavendish (Astana Qazaqstan Team) was the first rider to take to the road at 13:05. However, the Briton, who set a new record for the most stage wins at the Tour de France on Wednesday with his 35th stage win, had nothing to do with the outcome of the race. Lenny Martinez (Groupama-FDJ) set the first fastest time of 31:40 minutes. The 20-year-old was soon edged out by Luke Durbridge (Team Jayco-AlUla), before Nils Politt (UAE Team Emirates) was 25 seconds faster than the Australian. The German time trial champion's time only lasted a short time. Stefan Bissegger (EF Education EasyPost) rode another 43 seconds faster.
Bad luck for Stefan Küng
Kevin Vauquelin (Arkea-B&B Hotels), winner of stage 2 in Bologna, made sure that Bissegger had to leave the hot seat again. The Frenchman beat the Swiss rider's time by 22 seconds. Stefan Küng (Groupama-FDJ), the next favourite for the stage win, set off a little later. The Swiss rider was initially on course with his new Wilier time trial bike, but then his chain fell off. Küng was able to quickly fix the problem himself, but it cost him a lot of time, meaning that he played no part in the battle for the stage win. In the end it was enough for tenth place.
Campenaerts holds the best time for a long time
Vauquelin and Victor Campenaerts (Lotto-Dstny) battled for victory first. The former world hour record holder was a tiny 0.76 seconds faster than Vauquelin. Not much more happened at the front until the top favourites for the Tour victory took off.
Evenepoel races to victory with an average speed of more than 52 km/h
First Primoz Roglic (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) beat Campenaerts' time. Jonas Vingegaard (Visma | Lease a Bike) was three seconds slower than Roglic and ultimately lost 25 seconds to his big rival Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates). Then Remco Evenepoel (Soudal - Quick Step) crossed the finish line, who experienced a moment of shock shortly before the finish when he suspected a defect on his time trial bike, but this was not the case. With 28:52 and an hourly average of 52.587, the time trial world champion set the final best time, which even Pogacar could not match.
