COMBLOUX, France — COMBLOUX, France (AP) — Defending champion Jonas Vingegaard may have time-trialed his way to a second straight Tour de France victory.
A sensational time trial from Vingegaard on Tuesday saw the overall leader extend his advantage over two-time winner Tadej Pogačar to nearly two minutes with just five stages remaining — including Sunday's largely ceremonial, final procession to Paris.
"No, there's still a lot of hard stages to come so we have to keep fighting the next days," Vingegaard said when asked if the race had already been decided. "And yeah, we're looking forward to it.
"I'm really, really happy with the victory today and really proud of it. It's my first time trial victory in the Tour de France. So, yeah, I'm really proud."
Vingegaard, who rides for the Jumbo-Visma team, started the day only 10 seconds ahead of Pogačar after little could separate the duo in a fascinating duel over the last two weeks.
However, when it came down to a direct head-to-head battle, Vingegaard was in a class of his own.
The Danish cyclist finished the 22.4-kilometer (14-mile) hilly route from Passy to Combloux 1 minute, 38 seconds ahead of Pogačar. Wout van Aert was third at the end of the 16th stage, 2:51 behind Vingegaard.
The 26-year-old Vingegaard now leads Pogačar by 1:48 overall and it will take something equally sensational from the Slovenian cyclist to wrest the yellow jersey from his rival. Adam Yates moved into third overall, almost nine minutes behind Vingegaard.
Riders face a mammoth mountain stage, the hardest of the race, on Wednesday. The last of four climbs of the 17th stage is a 28.4-kilometer (17.6-mile) slog up Col de la Loze, before sweeping downhill to the Courchevel ski station which hosts World Cup slalom races.
Tuesday's time trial had been seen as a potential tiebreaker but few could have imagined such a large gap.
"I think today I even surprised myself with the time trial I did. I didn't expect to do so well," Vingegaard said.
Pogačar himself put in an impressive performance and flew through the first time check 26 seconds up on the rest of the field. However, Vingegaard — who had rolled down the ramp last — was 16 seconds faster than Pogačar at that point, after just 7.1 kilometers, and had extended that to 30 seconds after 12 kilometers of racing.
Pogačar opted to change from his time-trial bike to a lightweight road bike at the foot of the second-category climb, with 5.3 kilometers remaining, and that helped him on the ascent. But he was unable to match an extraordinary ride from Vingegaard, who could almost see his rival on the approach to the finish line, such was his time gain.
Van Aert took his cap off to his teammate and smiled at the camera.
"It's hard to understand what happened because it was extraordinary," Van Aert said. "But we've seen it throughout the whole Tour — those two are just so much stronger than the rest. In the end, I'm happy to make it into the top three.
"It's a positive step forwards to secure yellow. We're looking really good ... The stages in the next few days will be tough and crucial. Now we need to recover and make sure we're ready for tomorrow."