Chapter 358 - 184: The Battle to Defend the Yellow Jersey, End of the First Week of Competition

On July 4th, the seventh race day of the Tour de France, the first ITT stage arrived.

Today’s race started in Nuits-Saint-Georges, with the finish line set in the largest wine village in France’s Burgundy Night Hill District: Gevrey-Chambertin.

The course was only 25.3 km long.

However, there were three time checks along the way, used as reference points for the riders’ real-time data.

They were located at the 8.4 km, 14.4 km, and 19.9 km marks of the stage, respectively.

The entire course was predominantly flat, but it wasn’t a completely smooth ride.

At the 11.5 km mark, there was a short climb, 1.6 km long with an average gradient of 6.5%.

Aside from this climb, the sections before and after it were purely flat terrain.

As for the individual time trial stage, seasoned fans all know that the ones most affected by the stage results are undoubtedly the general classification contenders.

This is because there are no teammates to help in a time trial; it purely comes down to each rider’s individual strength.

As of the end of Stage 6, the top ten riders in the general classification were all, without a doubt, the core leaders or top domestiques of their respective teams.

The standings were as follows:

1. Huang Chong, 26:47:11

2. Pogačar, +0:08

3. Vingegaard, +0:10

4. Evenepoel, +1:02

5. Ayuso, +1:27

6. Roglič, +1:29

7. Rodríguez, +1:31

8. Landa, +1:47

9. Almeida, +1:47

10. Ciccone, +3:20

...

This list made it clear that the strength of the UAE Team was no empty boast.

They had two domestiques in the top ten. Such a dominant presence was a huge advantage for Pogačar.

Besides the UAE Team, this year’s Red Bull Bora and Quick Step Team also performed impressively, each placing two riders in the top ten.

In contrast, last year’s defending champions, the Visma Team, were left with only Vingegaard struggling to hold on in the top ten of the general classification.

Within their lineup, the rider with the next best GC time was Jorgenson, who had just transferred from the Movistar Team this year and was in exceptionally hot form.

Jorgenson’s time was only one second behind the Trek Team’s leader, Ciccone.

He was tied for 12th place with the same time deficit as Bernal of the Ineos Grenadiers Team.

But to be honest, before the ITT began, the riders that all the fans were most focused on were, ultimately, those few top superstars.

Almost everyone was only looking forward to the performances of the top six riders. As for Rodríguez in seventh place, no one had high expectations for him.

That was because, unlike his teammates Tarling and Ganna, he wasn’t good at ITT riding at all.

After the race officially began, the riders started in reverse order of the general classification.

So far in this year’s Tour de France, only two riders had withdrawn, leaving 174 riders still in the race.

This made it the edition with the lowest withdrawal rate in the history of the Tour de France.

For the riders at the bottom of the general classification, there was naturally no point in going all out in the time trial.

But among these sprinters, there were quite a few famous names.

Therefore, it was still worth it for the fans to spend four or five hours watching the live race along the roadside.

The very first rider to start was none other than the famous Astana lead sprinter, Cavendish, who had just won his 35th Tour de France stage.

Although he had already achieved great success in this year’s Tour de France, after six stages, his total time was a staggering 1:38:20 behind the first-place rider, Huang Chong.

However, he had no pressure in the time trial. All he had to do was finish safely and take the opportunity to interact with the fans on both sides of the road during his final Tour de France.

After Cavendish started, the next big-name rider was Philipsen of the Alpecin Team, ranked 152nd in the GC.

This guy had originally crossed the line in second place in yesterday’s stage.

But during the final sprint, he maliciously changed his line, blocking Van Aert’s sprint from behind and forcing the latter to slow down. This was ultimately ruled a violation by the race jury.

As a result, Philipsen not only had his excellent second-place finish and prize money revoked, but he was also penalized by the jury.

His finishing time was relegated to that of the last rider in yesterday’s group, dropping him to over 100th place in the stage.

At the same time, 25% of his sprint points were deducted, and he was also fined 500 francs.

All one can say is that this unlucky fellow’s bad habit cost him dearly in the rankings.

After Philipsen, it wasn’t until Kévin Vauquelin of the Arkéa Team, ranked 92nd in the GC, took the course that a truly high-level time trial performance was seen.

This guy completely blew past all the previous riders’ times, finishing with an average speed of 51.027 km/h and a total time under thirty minutes.

However, his seat in the hot seat hadn’t even warmed up before Victor Campenaerts, a Lotto cyclist ranked 78th in the GC, quickly bested his time.

Campenaerts’ average finishing speed was 51.049 km/h, only slightly higher than Vauquelin’s, but it shaved off 0.78 seconds for a total time of 29’44"18.

This left Vauquelin with a look of displeasure, but he had no choice but to relinquish the throne.

After Campenaerts, although the subsequent riders had increasingly higher GC rankings, not even a time trial specialist like Stefan King could beat his time.

It wasn’t until Roglič, ranked sixth in the GC, started his run that Campenaerts, who had been leading the stage, was finally dethroned by 17.67 seconds.

A result like this was considered a normal performance for Roglič. As he finished, the final five GC riders, including Huang Chong in the Yellow Jersey, had all successively started their runs.

Brother Luo’s time, of course, was of no reference value to Huang Chong.

After all, the former’s overall time was already more than a minute behind him.