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There’s just one time trial in the 2023 Tour de France and as we found out on Tuesday, that one stage turned out to be a decisive one. Just 10 seconds separated Jonas Vingegaard and Tadej Pogačar before the stage 16 ITT, but when Vingegaard won the stage by over 90 seconds – in a stage of just over half an hour – his overall lead ballooned out to almost two minutes.
If you love checking out all the gear the riders use in a time trial – bikes, helmets and more – there’s plenty for you in these photos, courtesy of Kristof Ramon and Jered & Ashley Gruber.
Aussie fans were out in force to cheer on Luke Durbridge …… and Chris Hamilton …… who seemed to get a good laugh out of watching some nearly naked fans getting chased by gendarmes.The Specialized S-Works TT5 helmet is no less, ah, striking than it was when it debuted a year ago.A bunch of riders swapped to a road bike for the final climb to the finish.Fun fact: this is the third season Michał Kwiatkowski has raced as Polish ITT champ. It comes six years after his last stint, and nine years after his first.KOM leader Giulio Ciccone was one rider who opted for a road bike for the climb.Ciccone’s strategy was to take the TT relatively easy, then hit the climb full-gas, as there were KOM points available on the climb. Ciccone achieved the day’s fastest climb to extend his lead in the KOM classification.Wout van Aert opted to remain on his TT bike throughout. Note the difference between his position on the flats …… and on the climb.Guillaume Martin is on track for his trademark roughly-10th-place-overall finish at the Tour. He’s currently in 11th.Simon won the battle of the Yateses, putting 14 seconds into his twin brother Adam. Adam still leads the Yates Classification, though, given he won a stage and is sitting in third overall.Pretty.Neilson Powless was tied with Ciccone on 58 points in the KOM battle before the stage. He’s now five points in arrears.Going, going …… gone.It hasn’t really been Ben O’Connor’s Tour. He finished 27th on the stage, and is now 21st overall. Tadej Pogačar took a bike change before the final climb, which cost him around 10 seconds or so. Ultimately it wouldn’t matter, because his archrival Jonas Vingegaard was riding the TT of his life.Here he is, on his way to obliterating the rest of the field.It was a dominant stage win for Vingegaard who now leads the race by nearly two minutes. It will take something remarkable to beat him from here.
