Timetrial: Preview on Stage 7 of the Tour de France 2024
The first of two individual time trials in this Tour de France is crucial in the battle for the Yellow Jersey. With narrow margins at the top of the overall standings and the exceptional time-trial abilities of Tadej Pogacar, Remco Evenepoel, Jonas Vingegaard, and Primoz Roglic, it’s anyone’s race. Will one of the Fab Four triumph in the 25.3-kilometer race against the clock between Nuits-Saint-Georges and Gevrey-Chambertin?
Stage 7 | 5 July | Nuits-Saint-Georges to Gevrey-Chambertin | 25.3 km | 300 m elevation gain
There couldn’t be a more picturesque route for a time trial. The first individual time trial of the Tour de France takes riders through forests, vineyards, and meadows. On narrow roads with rough patches of asphalt, the time trial specialists and GC contenders will race the 25.3 kilometers at high speed.
Even the Côte de Reulle-Vergey (1.6 kilometers at 6.1 percent average gradient), which comes after a flat ten-kilometer stretch, won’t slow them down. After this climb, the route gently rises for nearly three kilometers up to the village of Curley (454 meters).
From Curley, riders will descend continuously for about five kilometers to Morey-Saint-Denis (264 meters). The final six kilometers are flat, leading to the finish in Gevrey-Chambertin.
Favorites Check: Stage Win and Yellow Jersey
Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates) sees Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-Quick Step) as the favorite for the first time trial of this Tour. However, Pogacar is confident he will put in a solid performance himself, as he mentioned at the end of stage six. He didn’t comment on Jonas Vingegaard (Visma | Lease a Bike) and Primoz Roglic (Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe), despite their track records in winning Tour stages and Olympic gold in time trials.
On paper, Remco, the reigning world champion in this discipline, is the clear favorite. However, whether this will be enough to gain 45 seconds on Pogacar over 25 kilometers and take the Yellow Jersey remains to be seen.
It will also be interesting to see how time trial specialists like Stefan Küng (Groupama-FDJ) and Stefan Bissegger (EF Education-EasyPost) perform against the GC riders. Joao Almeida (UAE Team Emirates), currently seventh in the overall standings, could make a significant move up, as he is a better time trialist than Carlos Rodriguez (Ineos Grenadiers) and Mikel Landa (Soudal-Quick Step), who are ahead of him.
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