Key events
Now then, Arensman is just a second off Cattaneo’s time through the third checkpoint. If whatever caused his delay at the start costs him the stage he will be devastated. TNT are saying that start cost him as much as ten seconds.
By the way, polkadot chaser Paret-Peintre is well outside the points. His time is currently 12th quickest on the climb. Castrillo, Felix Grossschartner, Cattaneo and Arensman are the four men currently taking points in the mountains classification. That will change though, we’re less than ten minutes from the GC top getting out on the course.
Movistar’s Pablo Castrillo has gone through the second checkpoint quicker than Cattaneo, he’s the Spanish time trial champion so he could challenge the leader.
Unfortunate moment for Thymen Arensman, it looked like he got into the start gate late and wanted to ride straight through but wasn’t allowed. He rolled off the ramp shaking his head. His time will be taken from when he was due to start, so that could prove costly.
Cattaneo take the lead!
The Italian actually stretched out his lead on the final kilometre and ended up with a 13-second advantage over Armirail. He averaged 46km/h across the course but really excelled on the flat section at the end.
We could have a new leader here, Mattia Cattaneo (Red Bull Bora-Hansgrohe) is on a heater. He’s gone through the 1km to go marker with a nine second advantage on Armirail. Can he hold it?
There are five points on offer in the polkadot race today for the rider that posts the quickest time up the Côte de Larringes. Pogacar is the current leader in the mountains classification but Valentin Paret-Peintre (Soudal-Quick-Step) is wearing the jersey (skinsuit today) because the race leader can’t wear both. The Frenchman will be emptying the tank up the climb, not worrying too much about his overall time, and hoping the GC leaders try to pace themselves a bit more evenly later on. Paret-Peintre has about 4km to go on the climb. One to keep an eye on.
We are counting down to the GC leaders rolling off the start ramp, here are the scheduled start times for the top ten:
Jordan Jegat (TotalEnergies) at 15.57 BST (16.57 CEST)
Tom Pidcock (Pinarello–Q36.5) at 15.59 BST (16.59 CEST)
Lenny Martinez (Bahrain Victorious) at 16.01 BST (17.01 CEST)
Mattias Skjelmose (Lidl-Trek) at 16.03 BST (17.03 CEST)
Juan Ayuso (Lidl-Trek) at 16.05 BST (17.05 CEST)
Florian Lipowitz (Red Bull Bora–Hansgrohe) at 16.07 BST (17.07 CEST)
Paul Seixas (Decathlon) at 16.09 BST (17.09 CEST)
Isaac Del Toro (UAE Emirates-XRG) at 16.11 BST (17.11 CEST)
Remco Evenepoel (Red Bull Bora–Hansgrohe) at 16.13 BST (17.13 CEST)
Tadej Pogacar (UAE Emirates-XRG) at 16.15 BST (17.15 CEST)
Armirail is the new leader!
The Frenchman comes over the line with his mouth agape and despite losing significant time to Tarling on the flat, the Visma Lease-a-Bike rider finishes six seconds quicker than the man in the hotseat.
Pedersen has finished with a time of 37min 31secs, that’s more than three minutes slower than Tarling.
Bruno Armirail (Visma Lease-a-Bike) has just gone through the time check at the top of the Côte de Larringes 19 seconds quicker than Tarling’s time. He’s flying down the descent too. The question will be whether he can match Tarling’s power on the flatter section in the run to the finish. This is impressive stuff from Armirail, he has 11.5km to go.
Mads Pedersen, the man in the green jersey, is out on the course. He’s currently on the uphill has about 22.5km to go. The Dane is not a TT specialist and already trails Tarling’s time by 50secs. In fact, no one out on the course is within 40secs of the current stage leader.
What’s happened so far…
The first rider rolled off the start ramp at noon and Josh Tarling of Netcompany-Ineos has set the quickest time so far, clocking 34mins 21secs. The Welshman’s teammate Filippo Ganna has just come across the line and could not quite overhaul Tarling, finishing four seconds off the pace. Huub Artz (Lotto-Intermarche) is currently the third on the podium.
William Fotheringham’s stage guide
William Fotheringham
Stage 16, Tuesday 21 July: Évian-les-Bains to Thonon-les-Bains (individual time trial), 26.1km
Time trials, remember those? Thirty years ago, with Miguel Induráin in his prime, a Tour might include three contre la montres totalling over 100km. Recently, they have been chopped to sex up the race, so this one lasts just over half an hour. With a second-category climb plus descent, it favours the select group going for the overall, led by the multiple world champion Evenepoel. It will come down to seconds, with the only drama if someone has a bad day as Vingegaard did last year in Rouen. Is this progress? Answers on a carte postale please.
Read the full stage-by-stage guide to this year’s race:
Preamble
Two in a row for Remco Evenepoel? The Belgian is favourite for the only inidivudal time trial of this year’s Tour on a 26.1km course that is uphill from the gate in Évian-les-Bains and features the categort two Côte de Larringes, a 9.7km climb at 4.3%, before a tricky descent towards the Lake Geneva shoreline in Thonon-les-Bains.
The sad withdrawal of Jonas Vingegaard, tinged with controversy after the Dane crashed out the day after his sleep was interrupted at 2am by doping control, confirmed what we already knew about this year’s Tour: Tadej Pogacar is unassailable. Evenepoel may shave a few seconds off Pogacar’s five-minute lead here should he bag another grand tour time trial victory but it is not outside of the range of possibilities that Pogacar shows off his all-around talents by powering away to take this one either. The Netcompany-Ineos pair of Filippo Ganna and Josh Tarling are in with a shout, while Juan Ayuso (Lidl-Trek) is an outside bet.
The real interest in the remaining stages of the Tour will be on the battle for podium and the tug of war over the young rider’s jersey between Isaac del Toro and Paul Seixas. Seixas is the stronger rider against clock, but after two weeks in the saddle who knows what impact that will have.
