“I am satisfied with my time trial today”, Vingegaard immediately says afterwards. Although the leader of the yellow-black formation lost 20 seconds on Evenepoel, he kept the other favorites far behind him and is the new number five in the general classification. “I'm very happy with that.”

Moments before, teammate Jorgenson powered to the fastest time of the day up to that point. The American eventually finished third in the race against the clock over a varied course. A flat and fast start was followed by a steep climb, after which the riders went full speed downhill towards the finish in Saint-Péray.

“The climb in the middle of the time trial was very tough”, Sepp Kuss admits, but he set a creditable time as well. "I have a good feeling about it. This is a good test for our team towards the Tour de France, even though we know we will be faced with a different type of time trial there. Today's outcome is a positive one."

Tomorrow, the riders face a tricky stage before the peloton heads into the mountains over the weekend. "There are some very interesting days coming up. I lost some time on Evenepoel, but I'm happy to have left the other competitors behind me today. Recent years have shown that there is a lot of time to be gained in the mountains. I'm looking forward to that", Vingegaard concludes.