OLYMPIC CHAMPION REMCO Evenepoel stormed to victory in Tuesday’s 26.1km individual time-trial at the Tour de France to shave valuable seconds off Tadej Pogacar’s overall lead.
Belgian Evenepoel, 26, blasted over the stage 16 course along the shores of Lake Geneva 28 seconds quicker than reigning champion Pogacar in second.
Everyone else finished more than a minute back, with Dane Mattias Skjelmose taking third at 1min 04sec.
That performance by the world and Olympic time-trial champion — on Belgium’s national holiday — cut four-time Tour winner Pogacar’s overall lead to 4min 32sec.
Ireland’s Ben Healy was six minutes and nine seconds off Evenepoel’s finish time and is 67th in the general classification.
It was Evenepoel’s second successive stage victory after he triumphed on Sunday’s mountainous 15th stage.
It was his fourth Tour stage victory overall, and his third in time-trials.
He also extended the gap to third-placed Isaac del Toro to more than two minutes.
But it was a miserable day for Evenepoel’s Red Bull-Bora Hansgrohe team-mate Florian Lipowitz.
Two days after two-time former winner Jonas Vingegaard crashed out of the Tour while sitting second overall, German Lipowitz went down hard on a bend and was forced out of the race.
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He had been fifth overall until that point and had set the fourth-fastest time in the three intermediate time-checks.
But several minutes after he crashed, Lipowitz was escorted to a medical vehicle holding his left arm.
Both Pogacar and Del Toro had a scare going through the same bend where Lipowitz fell but managed to stay upright.
Meanwhile, several Tour de France teams, including that of Evenepoel, confirmed on Tuesday they had faced anti-doping controls during the race’s final rest day.
However, unlike those on Sunday targeting Pogacar and Vingegaard, these did not happen in the middle of the night.
Pogacar and Evenepoel had beeen amongst a number of riders to blast the nighttime controls carried out by the International Testing Agency (ITA) as “inhumane” or disrespectful.
Evenepoel’s Red Bull-Bora Hansgrohe, the Decathlon CMA CGM team of French teenage sensation Paul Seixas and French outfit Groupama-FDJ United were amongst the teams targeted on Monday evening — although in some cases, the riders tested had already gone to bed.
“We were also visited last night, some riders were already asleep,” Red Bull manager Ralph Denk told German television channel ZDF.
Their eight riders were tested at 10pm, a spokesperson said. Decathlon’s seven remaining riders in the race were tested at around 8:30pm.
Picnic-PostNL, Jayco-AlUla and Bahrain Victorious also faced tests.
The ITA is an independent organisation which has been designated by the International Cycling Union (UCI) since 2021 to carry out doping controls.
These tests have become a hot topic at the Tour after Vingegaard and Pogacar were visited by the ITA at 2am and 5am respectively on Sunday, just hours before a major mountain stage.
Vingegaard crashed on that stage after coming down on a bend and broke his collarbone.
Pogacar speculated afterwards his arch rival’s disturbed sleep could have contributed to a lack of concentration which resulted in his fall.
Doping tests are generally done between 5am and 11pm, but the ITA had petitioned a Paris judge to get permission to carry out a night-time test.
On Monday, the CPA union which represents professional cyclists blasted the process as counter-productive.
But Jonathan Vaughters, the manager of the EF Education team, who in 2012 admitted to having doped during his cycling career, a part of which was spent in the US Postal team of Lance Armstrong, applauded the controls.
“2am testing is one of the very effective ways to prevent peptide (EPO, hGH) and testosterone micro dosing,” he posted on social media.
“If UCI had tested us in 2001 at 2am? We’d all have been suspended and saved the sport 25 years of drama.”
Cycling went through a particularly dark and murky period in the 1990s and 2000s when numerous Tour winners either tested positive for doping or later admitted to having done so, amongst them Armstrong.
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Evenepoel wins individual time-trial as Tour de France hit by new wave of anti-doping tests
OLYMPIC CHAMPION REMCO Evenepoel stormed to victory in Tuesday’s 26.1km individual time-trial at the Tour de France to shave valuable seconds off Tadej Pogacar’s overall lead.
Belgian Evenepoel, 26, blasted over the stage 16 course along the shores of Lake Geneva 28 seconds quicker than reigning champion Pogacar in second.
Everyone else finished more than a minute back, with Dane Mattias Skjelmose taking third at 1min 04sec.
That performance by the world and Olympic time-trial champion — on Belgium’s national holiday — cut four-time Tour winner Pogacar’s overall lead to 4min 32sec.
Ireland’s Ben Healy was six minutes and nine seconds off Evenepoel’s finish time and is 67th in the general classification.
It was Evenepoel’s second successive stage victory after he triumphed on Sunday’s mountainous 15th stage.
It was his fourth Tour stage victory overall, and his third in time-trials.
He also extended the gap to third-placed Isaac del Toro to more than two minutes.
But it was a miserable day for Evenepoel’s Red Bull-Bora Hansgrohe team-mate Florian Lipowitz.
Two days after two-time former winner Jonas Vingegaard crashed out of the Tour while sitting second overall, German Lipowitz went down hard on a bend and was forced out of the race.
He had been fifth overall until that point and had set the fourth-fastest time in the three intermediate time-checks.
But several minutes after he crashed, Lipowitz was escorted to a medical vehicle holding his left arm.
Both Pogacar and Del Toro had a scare going through the same bend where Lipowitz fell but managed to stay upright.
Meanwhile, several Tour de France teams, including that of Evenepoel, confirmed on Tuesday they had faced anti-doping controls during the race’s final rest day.
However, unlike those on Sunday targeting Pogacar and Vingegaard, these did not happen in the middle of the night.
Pogacar and Evenepoel had beeen amongst a number of riders to blast the nighttime controls carried out by the International Testing Agency (ITA) as “inhumane” or disrespectful.
Evenepoel’s Red Bull-Bora Hansgrohe, the Decathlon CMA CGM team of French teenage sensation Paul Seixas and French outfit Groupama-FDJ United were amongst the teams targeted on Monday evening — although in some cases, the riders tested had already gone to bed.
“We were also visited last night, some riders were already asleep,” Red Bull manager Ralph Denk told German television channel ZDF.
Their eight riders were tested at 10pm, a spokesperson said. Decathlon’s seven remaining riders in the race were tested at around 8:30pm.
Picnic-PostNL, Jayco-AlUla and Bahrain Victorious also faced tests.
The ITA is an independent organisation which has been designated by the International Cycling Union (UCI) since 2021 to carry out doping controls.
These tests have become a hot topic at the Tour after Vingegaard and Pogacar were visited by the ITA at 2am and 5am respectively on Sunday, just hours before a major mountain stage.
Vingegaard crashed on that stage after coming down on a bend and broke his collarbone.
Pogacar speculated afterwards his arch rival’s disturbed sleep could have contributed to a lack of concentration which resulted in his fall.
Doping tests are generally done between 5am and 11pm, but the ITA had petitioned a Paris judge to get permission to carry out a night-time test.
On Monday, the CPA union which represents professional cyclists blasted the process as counter-productive.
But Jonathan Vaughters, the manager of the EF Education team, who in 2012 admitted to having doped during his cycling career, a part of which was spent in the US Postal team of Lance Armstrong, applauded the controls.
“2am testing is one of the very effective ways to prevent peptide (EPO, hGH) and testosterone micro dosing,” he posted on social media.
“If UCI had tested us in 2001 at 2am? We’d all have been suspended and saved the sport 25 years of drama.”
Cycling went through a particularly dark and murky period in the 1990s and 2000s when numerous Tour winners either tested positive for doping or later admitted to having done so, amongst them Armstrong.
– © AFP 2026
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