Evenepoel dominates rivals to win stage 16 time trial – Tour de France

Tour de France 2026

Stage 16

World champion Remco Evenepoel (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) stormed to a highly-anticipated victory in the Tour de France stage 16 individual time trial, stopping the clock in 32:19 to claim his second stage win in a row and third Tour TT win.

Starting his effort second to last, Evenepoel was the favourite to win the 26.1km effort from Évian-les-Bains to Thonon-les-Bains, and duly lived up to his status with a phenomenally fast and powerful ride over the hilly course.

Yellow jersey Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) went 28 seconds slower than Evenepoel to easily defend yellow, with the Belgian winning the stage but only making a fairly dent in the five-minute lead Pogačar has on him on GC.

Mattias Skjelmose (Lidl-Trek) put in a fantastic ride to finish third, 1:04 down on Evenepoel and interestingly gaining over a minute on his teammate Juan Ayuso.

It was a day of mixed emotions for Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe, with Evenepoel winning but the team lost co-leader Florian Lipowitz to a nasty crash mid-way through his TT. He was taken away on a stretcher, abandoning the race.

There was an extra cherry on top of Evenepoel’s win, as it came on Belgium’s national day.

“It’s amazing. It was a very nice TT, a lot of people on the side of the road, and my whole family from both sides being here – my parents came just today, and my wife is here with her parents and siblings as well,” Evenepoel explained at the finish.

“Also on the Belgian national day, it’s pretty special. I read this morning it’s been a while since a Belgian won on the national day, so I’m proud to be the one.

“Besides that, I’ve just been told my teammate Lipowitz crashed, so that is very unfortunate. It’s a bitter sweet pill to swallow with this victory. I wish him all the best and I hope he is not too bad.

“Next to that, I need to thank Specialized, for all the new material they gave me for this TT,” he said, having ridden an unreleased Shiv TT bike. “A lot of work behind the scenes, and to win this TT with such a performance, I’m just proud and happy. It’s unbelievable, to take two victories in a row, it’s amazing.”

Paul Seixas (Decathlon CMA CGM) finished fourth at 1:16, with his white jersey rival Isaac del Toro in fifth just five seconds back – Del Toro did enough to hold onto the white jersey, but the Frenchman is now only 20 seconds behind him.

In terms of the overall GC, the combination of Lipowitz’s abandon – he had been fifth overall – and the TT time gaps meant that there was a reshuffling in the top 10, though ultimately more in terms of time gaps than actual positions.

The top three is still the same, Pogačar from Evenepoel from Del Toro, but Evenepoel has shortened the gap to yellow by 28 seconds, down to 4:32, and he’s extended his lead over Del Toro to 2:19. Seixas is still in fourth.

The rest of the top 11 all moved up a spot, with Juan Ayuso now in fifth instead of Lipowitz, but the order remained the same. Intrigue is developing between Ayuso and Skjelmose, who are fifth and sixth only 42 seconds apart, meanwhile Lenny Martinez (Bahrain Victorious) and Tom Pidcock (Pinarello-Q36.5) are only eight seconds apart now in seventh and eighth.

The new entrant to the top 10 was Tudor Pro Cycling’s Yannis Voisard, now 10th.

The day’s earliest starters didn’t do much in terms of setting any kind of benchmark time, with Josh Tarling (Netcompany Ineos) the first real specialist to start with chances of winning the stage. The Welshman delivered on that status, setting an impressive time of 34:21 to go into the hot seat where he would stay for some time.

Several other specialists tried and failed to unseat him, including his teammate Filippo Ganna and Belgian champion Huub Artz (Lotto Intermarché), who slotted in five and 28 seconds down on Tarling, respectively. Daan Hoole (Decathlon CMA CGM) set a really fast time through the first timing point, but couldn’t sustain his power to the end.

He sat in the hot seat for over an hour, but his time was eventually bettered when Visma-Lease a Bike’s French specialist Bruno Armirail smashed through the second and third timing points before delivering a finish time that knocked 11 seconds off of Tarling’s.

He also enjoyed a fairly decent amount of time in the hot seat, but as soon as Mattia Cattaneo (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) started and sped through the second two time checks, it became clear that Armirail’s time wouldn’t stand much longer. Indeed, the Italian powered to the line 13 seconds faster than Armirail to overtake the top of the standings – and no doubt gathered some tips to report back to Evenepoel.

There was some drama when Thymen Arensman (Netcompany Ineos) missed his start time by over 10 seconds, rolling down the ramp huffing and gesticulating, but then clearly driven on by anger to put in a super fast TT. But at the finish line his frustration would have only grown, as he finished just five seconds down on Cattaneo – meaning that if he’d started on time, he would have gone into the lead.

That meant that Cattaneo’s time was safe as the GC top 10 started, though it felt clear that his time in the hot seat was limited with such big names on the road to close out the day. Mattias Skjelmose (Lidl-Trek) was the first rider to beat Cattaneo’s time, stopping the clock at 33:23, but Remco Evenepoel was already on the road and smashing the intermediate times with only Pogačar behind him.

Part-way into his effort, Florian Lipowitz (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) slid out on a corner and had a nasty, high-speed crash, hitting his head hard and staying down for a long time before ultimately being forced to abandon the race, an upsetting end to the race for last year’s third-place finisher.

As expected, Remco Evenepoel put in an utterly storming ride, going 56 seconds faster than anyone before him up the climb, and 14 seconds faster than Pogačar when he came through shortly after. From there the Belgian was simply untouchable with his speed, coming in to the finish over a minute faster than Skjelmose.

Pogačar came closer than anyone else, 28 seconds shy of Evenepoel, but the day was the world champion’s, taking back to back stages after his mountaintop triumph over Pogačar on Sunday.

The 17th stage of the Tour is billed by ASO as a flat stage over 174.7 kilometers. Flat is a matter of perspective, as the route includes nearly 2,400 meters of climbing.

From kilometer 15 onwards, the route runs mostly upwards for a good 30 kilometers. This section culminates in the Col des Prés: 3.5 kilometers of climbing at an average gradient of 6.6%.

The riders then descend back towards Chambéry before tackling the Col de Couz, an 8.6-kilometer ascent at an average of 2.8%.

With that, most of the climbing is done and dusted. The terrain rolls continuously on before turning mostly downhill over the final 35 kilometers. Yet there’s another short rise about 6 kilometers from the finish: 2.5 kilometers at 3.5%. From there, it’s flat to the line.

The finish town of Voiron may not rank high in cycling’s historical hierarchy, but it’s making a name for itself. Ben Turner took a stage there in last year’s Vuelta.

Stage 16 result:

1. Remco Evenepoel (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) in 32:19:33
2. Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG), +28s
3. Mattias Skjelmose (Lidl-Trek), +1:04
4. Paul Seixas (Decathlon CMA CGM), +1:16
5. Isaac del Toro (UAE Team Emirates-XRG), +1:21
6. Thymen Arensman (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe), +1:41
7. Mattia Cattaneo (Netcompany INEOS), +1:46
8. Bruno Armirail (Visma-Lease a Bike), +1:55
9. Pablo Castrillo (Movistar), +1:59
10. Joshua Tarling (Netcompany INEOS), +2:02

General Classification: 

1. Tadej Pogačar (Slo) UAE Team Emirates-XRG, in 56:14:18
2. Remco Evenepoel (Bel) Redu Bull-Bora-hansgrohe, +4:32
3. Isaac del Toro (Mex) UAE Team Emirates-XRG, +6:51
4. Paul Seixas (Fra) Decathlon CMA CGM, +7:11
5. Juan Ayuso (Esp) Lidl-Trek, +9:22
6. Mattias Skjelmose (Den) Lidl-Trek,+10:14
7. Lenny Martinez (Fra) Bahrain-Victorious, +12:50
8. Tom Pidcock (Gbr), Pinarello Q36.5, +12:58
9. Jordan Jegat (Fra) ToralEnergies, +22:50
10. Yannis Voisard (Sui) Tudor Pro Cycling, +24:18