Not sure I hear the ITT referred to as the "Race of Truth" much any more but you did when I raced back in the day. It was called that as there was no place to hide as it was you against the course and the clock. Back then I was pretty good at them - well before there was much in the way of aero - oh yea I borrowed a set of Roval wheel since that today would be considered just "wheels." But it was an event where you just had to learn to suffer and the one who could go the faces often was the one who could suffer longer. I remember watching the LA Olympics in 1984 and the Italian TTT team which was made up of what would be considered big guys - 80kg or more - and I wanted to do that - never happened but one can dream.
The key going into today's stage was you can pick up - or lose - time as no one can draft and it is just you. So going in Remco was taken as the #1 ITT guy but no one was sure where he was at on this day. Then with Tadej not winning the last stage race ITT he was in (Criterium Du Dauphine) some wondered if he dogged it, had a bad day or what but he lost 28 seconds to Jonas and 49 seconds to Remco so we just did not know. I think he was just trying a different approach which I thought he said did not go well. All that said this is a different day and with yesterday's stage this was going to be one to watch. The race may not win for someone but it can for sure lose it if they had a bad day.
Now to be honest while I like the ITT as a race watching it is a little tedious - especially as the early riders often are looking to just get done with a few maybe going for it. As a reminder if you did not know it the ITT start order is the reverse of the GC so the person in last goes first with a 1:00 time gap between the riders till you get to rider 86 then gap goes to 1:30 and then finally with last 15 riders it is at 2:00 gaps. Also, as this course is flat with not a lot of key sections it does not add to the excitement. All that said when it gets to the last riders the excitement does ratchet up as the intermediate tomes come in and the GC works itself out.
Onlooking at the splits it is clear Luke Plapp went for it and paid the price as it was not till the 3rd time check that Remco took over the best time. It was clear Remco was the best TT rider out there but did show that Affini still had a great ride as Remco was only 33 seconds ahead. Behind, Tadej was not far off ERemco but I think Tadej was more concerned about Jonas, at least early on, who he was ahead of at all the splits.
As far as MVDP, he was not expected to hold onto the Yellow jersey but all things considered had a good ride finishing only 01:44 behind the winner of the Remco and 01:28 behind Tadej. Maybe more surprising was that MVDP was only 23 seconds behind Jonas. A great ride by him and will be interesting if he moves over to try for the Green points jersey now.
In watching it live it was clear Remco had a great ride as did Tadej who even picked up a few seconds on the 3rd split to be 17 seconds behind Remco and finish 16 seconds behind. But Jonas did not have the ride he wanted as at time check 3 was about 50 seconds behind Tadej - time he did not want to lose. It was going to come down to the final 7k or so and this is what was exciting as watching it live the question was how close could would the big three be. In the end Remco won as sort of expected but only gained 16 seconds on Tadej but unexpectedly he gained 1:21 on Jonas. This was for sure not the ITT Jonas wanted as on the GC Remco slotted into second at 00:42 behind Tadey while Kevin Vauguelin moved into 3rd at 00:59 behind Tadej and Jonas now in 4th at 01:13 back.
When riding an ITT there is no where to hide and Jonas found that out. I am sure Remco got some confidence from this but I would suspect he thought he could gain more. Maye the take away was Tadey lost nothing it seems over the last half. The Race of Truth did not lie as it showed us who is going to fight this out and with no rest for the early there is a hilly stage tomorrow. It is on the days after such a hard effort the full story is told - who dug deep and has a hard time climbing out, who did just enough and who will put the hurt on everyone when they have the chance. There is only one ITT left but is is shorter and climbs 8K of the 10K ITT so will play into the hands of Tadej and Jonas - so we shall see
Race Highlights:
- Winner - Remco Evenepoel
- Yellow Jersey - Tadej Pogacar
- Green Jersey - Tadej Pogacar
- Polkadot Jersey - Tadej Pogacar
- While Jersey - Remco Evenepoel
GC Time Gaps
1) Tadej Pogacar
2) Remco Evenepoel - +00:42
3) Kevin Vauquelin - +00:59
4) Jonas Vingegaard - +01:13
5) Mateo Jorgensen - +01:22
6) Mathieu Van Der Poel - +001:28
8) Roglic - +02:30
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