Tour de France

Remco Evenepoel became the first rider in history to have won a time trial at Il Giro, Le Tour, La Vuelta, the Worlds and the European Championships, a fantastic feat that came on the back of a phenomenal ride on the first stage against the clock of this Tour de France edition. The 24-year-old Belgian, a debutant in the race, proved he is the best time triallist in the world as he scored Soudal Quick-Step’s 51st Tour de France victory and cemented his place at the top of the youth classification.

It’s crazy! I enjoyed every meter of this time trial and coming out with the win is simply amazing.

“I wasn’t thinking of the GC, the only thing that I had in mind was the victory and it’s an incredible feeling now to be a stage winner in all Grand Tours. A big thank you to the team for all their support, and to Specialized and our other partners for the setup of the bike. It’s a very special day in my life and my career, one which I will always remember.”

The penultimate rider to leave the start house, the World ITT Champion produced one of the finest displays of power of his career, going fastest through all three intermediate checkpoints of the 23.4km undulating course between Nuits-Saint-Georges and Gevrey-Chambertin, before posting the best time at the finish thanks to a stunning 52.58km/h average speed. Following this impressive win, Remco gained twelve seconds on the yellow jersey wearer, only half a minute separating him from the first place in the overall standings.

“I had a very good day on this challenging course, which had a pretty hard climb and also some technical roads. I knew before the start that there wouldn’t be any big time gaps today, but I gave everything out there. I did a better time trial than the one in the Dauphiné. It ended up being a perfect day for me and my team, we took some time on the others, so it’s mission accomplished. We will celebrate this beautiful victory tonight, and from tomorrow, we’ll focus on the remaining stages of this week”, added Evenepoel – the youngest rider in the last 45 years to have individual time trial wins in all three Grand Tours.

Photo credit: ©Tim De Waele / Getty Images