World Champion for a Reason – Stage 7
Stage 7 of the Tour de France 2024 was an individual time trial from Nuits-Saint-Georges to Gevrey-Chambertin.
Stefan Bissegger set an early best time which was beaten by Kévin Vauquelin then Victor Campenaerts. Stefan Kung might have bettered the Campenaerts’ time but for a mechanical.
Then it was down to the Big Four, who are also the top four on GC.
Remco is the specialist in this discipline and World Champion. He beat the times of Roglic and Vingegaard. Pogacar, riding last, was 12s slower than Evenepoel.
Evenepoel got his first Tour de France stage win.
After him were:
- Pogacar at 12s
- Roglic at 34s
- Vingegaard at 37s
Video Highlights
These are video highlights of Stage 7.
Remco Speaks
Remco Evenepoel said:
‘I enjoyed every metre of this time trial and coming out with the win was simply amazing.
It’s a perfect day for me and my team. Mission accomplished.
As for the rest of the Tour de France, I believe Tadej is going to be unreachable. But this is cycling, you never know what can happen’.
remco evenepoel
The Big Four and the GC
It’s interesting that Remco thinks he can’t beat Pogacar. Pogacar has had bad days in the past two Tours, and is here after doing the Giro.
Vingegaard doesn’t believe that Pogacar is unbeatable. After Stage 4, he said ‘my time will come’. Whether he is right or not we don’t know, but clearly Visma Lease-a-Bike have data which makes them think that Jonas can win, and a plan as to where he will take time back.
This is what Vingegaard said after his performance. He feels that ‘the power is there and we just have to believe in our plan’.
Roglic had a slow start in Italy, but appears to be back on form now.
The GC is:
- Tadej Pogacar
- Remco Evenepoel +33s
- Jonas Vingegaard +1min15s
- Primoz Roglic +1min36s
It is all set up nicely for the rest of the Tour to be an exciting battle.