Vingegaard deals Pogacar huge blow in Tour de France time trial

Jonas Vingegaard stormed to victory in the stage 16 time trial at the Tour de France to significantly strengthen his grip on the yellow jersey.

After the two mountain stages over the weekend failed to find any meaningful difference between Vingegaard and chief rival Tadej Pogacar, Vingegaard used the only race against the clock in this Tour to boost his advantage as he put more than a minute-and-a-half into the Slovenian.

Vingegaard's overall lead at the start of the day was only 10 seconds, but the picture has now changed massively with two mountain stages left before Paris.

After much speculation over tactics, Pogacar chose to change bikes midway through the stage, getting on to his regular road bike for the final climb to the finish while Vingegaard stuck to his time trial machine.

Pogacar was already more than 30 seconds down on Vingegaard at that point, and the bike change brought no benefits as Vingegaard only continued to make up time, his final margin of victory 98 seconds from Pogacar over the 22.4km distance.

Having started his effort two minutes behind Pogacar, Vingegaard could see his rival up the road by the time they neared the finish, knowing he now has him where he wants him with five days still to go.

Vingegaard's team-mate Wout van Aert was third on the stage, with Simon Yates fifth and Adam Yates seventh. That result for Adam Yates was enough to move him up to third overall, five seconds ahead of Carlos Rodriguez.