Remco Evenepoel cut Tadej Pogacar’s lead at the top of the general classification by 28 seconds with a dominant victory in the time-trial on stage 16 of the Tour de France.<\/p>\n
Olympic champion Evenepoel completed the 26.1km course along the shores of Lake Geneva in 32 minutes and 19 seconds.<\/p>\n
It was the 26-year-old Belgian’s second successive stage victory after he triumphed on Sunday’s mountainous 15th stage.<\/p>\n
Slovenia’s Pogacar crossed the line in 32min and 47secs as his overall lead was trimmed to 4min 32secs.<\/p>\n
The rest of the field finished more than a minute back, with Denmark’s Mattias Skjelmose taking third.<\/p>\n
Evenepoel acknowledged it was “pretty special” to secure his fourth Tour stage victory overall on Belgium’s national day.<\/p>\n
“It’s amazing, it was a very nice time-trial with a lot of people on the side of the road,” Evenepoel said.<\/p>\n
“I read this morning it’s been a while since Belgium won on national day, so I’m proud to be the one.<\/p>\n
“My whole family from both sides being here, my parents came just today. My wife is here with her parents and the siblings as well.”<\/p>\n
Despite back-to-back stage wins, Evenepoel dismissed suggestions he could challenge Pogacar for overall victory.<\/p>\n
“I’m just focused on my own spot,” he explained.<\/p>\n
“I mean, Tadej is on his way to win a fifth Tour de France. It’s just amazing that I can be a bit close to him.”<\/p>\n
Evenepoel’s team-mate Florian Lipowitz, however, suffered an injury to his collarbone which is set to rule him out of the rest of the Tour.<\/p>\n