Evenepoel doubles up on Tour to mark Belgian national day in style
· Yahoo Sports
Remco Evenepoel made it back-to-back stage wins at the Tour de France as he marked Belgian national day with victory in a time trial on the banks of Lake Geneva on Tuesday.
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Resplendent in the rainbow bands, the world time trial champion completed the 26 kilometre course in a time of 32 minutes 19 seconds, beating Tadej Pogačar by 28 seconds.
He took a small bite out of the Slovenian’s commanding advantage in yellow, now 4 minutes 32 seconds, but more importantly opened up a significant gap over Isaac del Toro in the fight for second.
But it was a bittersweet day for Evenepoel’s Red Bull-Bora Hansgrohe team as Florian Lipowitz, third overall last year and fifth in this Tour at the start of the day, crashed 6 kilometres from the finish and abandoned with an apparent broken collarbone.
When Evenepoel won Sunday’s stage 15 atop Plateau de Solaison, it was his first career Tour road stage win, but this was his third time trial success in the world’s biggest race. What was a 58-second advantage over Del Toro is now 2 minutes and 19 seconds.
“It’s amazing, a very nice TT, a lot of people on the side of the road with my whole family from both sides – my parents came just today, my wife is here with her parents and siblings as well,” Evenepoel said. “On Belgian national day, it’s pretty special …
“I’ve just been told Lipowitz crashed, that’s very unfortunate, it’s a bittersweet pill to swallow with this victory and I wish him all the best.
“It’s unbelievable to take two victories in a row…I just think about my own spot. Tadej is on his way to winning a fifth Tour. It’s amazing I can be a bit close to him. It’s an honour to race with him and it’s a big step forward for me to be a bit around him.”
Pogačar had a scare of his own on the corner that brought down Lipowitz, grabbing the brakes as he ran wide, but kept things upright to limit the damage against Evenepoel who was always the favourite for the win.
The course from Evian-les-Bains went over the climb of the Cote de Larringes before plunging down into the second half of the course, with several riders touching 100 kilometres per hour on the descent.
French teenager Paul Seixas turned in another excellent ride, fourth on the stage, to close the gap to Del Toro to 20 seconds in the fight for the final podium spot.
Pogačar’s UAE Team Emirates-XRG team-mate Brandon McNulty finished 22nd, with his team saying he was uninjured after an apparent road rage incident involving a member of the public during his recon ride earlier in the day.