Yves Lampaert (QuickStep-AlphaVinyl) has taken a shock win in the rain-soaked short opening time trial stage of the 2022 Tour de France, finishing five seconds ahead of leading favorite Wout van Aert (Jumbo-Visma) to claim the race’s first maillot jaune on the streets of Copenhagen.
In what was effectively the first snapshot of the battle for the overall, Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates) confirmed his status as overall favorite with third place, completing the 13.2-kilometre course just seven seconds down on Lampaert, and best of the GC racers .
Leading contender Filippo Ganna (Ineos Grenadiers) was only able to make fourth after he, like so many of the TT and GC heavyweights, opted for an early start to try to avoid what proved to be a completely inaccurate forecast of heavy rain coming in late in the day, and then suffered a suspected late puncture.
Although two more lead favourites, Jonas Vingegaard and teammate Primož Roglič (Jumbo-Visma) opted to take things cautiously on the wet, ultra-slippery corners, they still proved to be Pogačar’s closest rivals on the day, finishing 14 and 15 seconds, respectively , we come from Lampaert.
But conditions then party dried out on a short, technical city center course in Denmark and the wind dropped, providing a golden opportunity for the late starters to make the most of a marginally less risky course, which Lampaert, a former double national TT champion, undoubtedly did to perfection.
More to come.
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