July 21, 2026
Coming out of a rest day is always tricky, especially going into the third week of a Grand Tour, but the riders do not have the luxury of easing into today's stage. A difficult 26 km Individual Time Trial awaits that will test all of the GC riders. The opulent town of Évian Les-Bains plays host to the start on the Southern shores of Lac Léman. The route winds it's way for 9.5 km up the Côte de Larringes at a grinding 4%. There is another 2 km of flat before the riders will plunge down into Thonon Les-Bains for the last time check with only 8 flat kilometers remaining. There are a few corners to content with and the descent will be critical to get right in this race against the clock.
Race Summary
It was a beautiful day along the the lake with bountiful sunshine and large crowds all along the course. A number of the first few riders who set off were just trying to get around to the finish so when Josh Tarling of Netcompany-Ineos came home after putting on his bet effort, he had smashed the previous best time by 3 minutes 20 seconds to set the benchmark of 34 minutes 21 seconds.
The first challenger to Tarling's time was one of the pre-race favorites and Tarling's own teammate, Filippo Ganna. Ganna set the provisional best time at the top of the climb but lost time down the descent and couldn't make it up by the finish, coming in 4 seconds down for second place. The surprise of the first 100 riders was Bruno Armirail of Visma-Lease a Bike. The former French ITT Champion scorched the course and crossed the finish line 6 seconds up on Tarling to take ownership of the hot seat.
A rarity in the modern peloton, Thymen Arensman of Netcompany-Ineos missed his start by around 25 seconds and was visibly frustrated by the situation. Meanwhile further up the course, Mattia Cattaneo of Soudal Quickstep rolled back the years and was pushing full. He took the top time in all three intermediate time checks and finished 13 seconds quicker than Armirail to become the new benchmark for the final riders to strive towards. Arensman didn't let the negative start get to his head and he put in a brilliant performance by coming in just 4 seconds down on Cattaneo and likely wondering what could have been.
Once the GC riders got going, the intermediate times were obliterated. Remco Evenepoel of Redbull-Bora Hansgrohe set the fastest time at the first check by 6 seconds on race leader Tadej Pogačar of UAE-XRG and over 20 seconds to Isaac del Toro of UAE-XRG, Mattias Skjelmose of Lidl-Trek, Florian Lipowitz of Redbull-Bora Hansgrohe, and Paul Seixas of Decathlon CMA CGM.
Through the second intermediate check, Evenepoel had expanded his lead on Pogačar to 14 seconds but a whopping 55 seconds to Skjelmose and over 1 minute to Lipowitz and the rest. Disaster struck at the bottom of the descent for Redbull-Bora Hansgrohe. Through a fast right corner, Lipowitz's front wheel went out from underneath him and he slid hard into the curb. He wasn't able to get up straight away and ultimately was forced to abandon.
Skjelmose was the first of the GC stage contenders to arrive at the finish and he set the new best time by 37 seconds over Cattaneo. Seixas came home 12 seconds down on Skjelmose and del Toro a further 5 seconds adrift. As great as Skjelmose's ride was, he has nowhere close to Evenepoel who smashed the time of the Dane by 1 minute 4 seconds, putting up an average speed of 48.450 KM/HR for his second stage win in a row and on Belgian Nation Day no less. Pogačar was quick but not quick enough to deny Evenepoel, arriving 28 seconds down and good for a comfortable second place.
The GC wasn't materially different than it was this morning, with the exception of Lipowitz who is now out of the Tour. Pogačar still has a commanding 4 minutes 32 seconds on Evenepoel, 6 minutes 51 seconds on del Toro, and 7 minutes 11 seconds on Seixas who ticked a little bit closer to the podium.