Stage 16

The road

At the start

The race of truth, ten seconds apart

For the first time in a week Jonas Vingegaard and Tadej Pogačar will not have each other for company. Ten seconds separate them after fifteen stages in which every attack has met its answer, and today they ride alone: 22.4 kilometres from Passy to Combloux, fast in the valley, then the wall of the Côte de Domancy three kilometres from the line. In time trials Pogačar leads their head-to-head six-three.

How it was won

1. 115 km to go

   First time check

   At the first split Vingegaard clocks a stunning 9:54 to the Passy check — the only man under ten minutes and already 16 seconds up on Pogačar.

2. 26 km to go

   Côte de Domancy

   Pogačar unclips for a bike change at the foot of the Domancy climb; Slovenian fans grab his TT bike, but the swap and his sacrifice of aerodynamics for watts prove miscalculated and costly.

3. 3At the line

   Combloux

   Vingegaard wins the time trial by 1:38, one of the great Tour TT rides; the yellow jersey is all but settled with the Alps still to come.

The result