The 2024 Tour de France delivered a dramatic day of racing on Tuesday, as Belgian cycling star Remco Evenepoel claimed a memorable individual time-trial victory on Belgium’s national holiday, capping off a second consecutive stage win while the peloton was left reeling from a hard crash that eliminated one of the general classification’s top contenders.
Staged over a 26.1-kilometer route tracing the stunning shoreline of Lake Geneva, the 16th stage of the Tour saw Evenepoel – the reigning Olympic and world time-trial champion – deliver a masterclass in controlled power. The 24-year-old crossed the finish line a full 28 seconds faster than four-time Tour champion Tadej Pogacar, who retained his overall general classification lead but saw his advantage cut to 4 minutes 32 seconds after Evenepoel’s dominant performance. No other rider came close to challenging the top two: Denmark’s Mattias Skjelmose finished third, more than a full minute behind Evenepoel, at 1 minute 4 seconds.
For Evenepoel, the win carried extra personal and national significance. The victory marked his fourth career Tour de France stage win and his third time-trial triumph at the race, coming just two days after he claimed the mountainous 15th stage to secure his first back-to-back stage wins at the event. Compounding the moment was its timing: the race fell on Belgium’s annual national holiday, a detail Evenepoel said made the victory even sweeter.
“It’s amazing, it was a very nice TT, a lot of people on the side of the road,” Evenepoel told reporters after the finish. “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. And also on the Belgian national day is pretty special — I read this morning it’s been a while since Belgium won on National Day, so I’m proud to be the one.”
Beyond cutting into Pogacar’s lead, Evenepoel also extended his advantage over third-place overall rider Isaac del Toro, pushing the gap to more than two minutes.
But the day’s celebrations were tempered by a devastating crash that forced Evenepoel’s Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe teammate Florian Lipowitz to abandon the race. Lipowitz, who sat fifth overall heading into the stage and had posted the fourth-fastest time through the route’s three intermediate checkpoints, crashed heavily on a sharp mid-route bend. Just 48 hours after former two-time champion Jonas Vingegaard was forced to withdraw from the Tour following a crash while sitting second overall, the German rider was helped into a medical vehicle clutching his injured left arm.
Pogacar and del Toro both navigated the same bend moments after Lipowitz’s crash, escaping the incident without incident after a close call.
From the opening kilometers of the time-trial, it was clear Evenepoel was riding at a level unmatched by the rest of the field. When the top 10 general classification contenders started their races, Skjolmose set an early blistering pace that put him well ahead of most competitors, with Lipowitz, del Toro and French teenage prospect Paul Seixas all within a handful of seconds through the first two checkpoints. But Evenepoel blew those times out of the water: by the first checkpoint, he was already seven seconds faster than Pogacar – the only rider who could stay within 30 seconds of his pace – and 22 seconds ahead of Skjelmose. That gap expanded to 14 seconds over Pogacar and 56 seconds over Skjelmose by the second checkpoint, with most of Evenepoel’s advantage built on the route’s uphill section, where his sustained power proved unbeatable. He held his lead through the final descent and flat finish to claim the win.
Evenepoel acknowledged that the victory was mixed with worry for his injured teammate, calling the moment “bittersweet” and telling reporters he hoped Lipowitz’s injury was not serious. Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe sporting director Klaas Lodewyck echoed that sentiment, noting the team’s joy over Evenepoel’s performance was overshadowed by the loss of one of their top general classification contenders.
“It’s mixed emotions, let’s say. We’re over the moon with the win from Remco, but the loss of Lipo was a big blow for the team,” Lodewyck said.