Race-against-the-clock specialist Remco Evenepoel produced a stunning display of power to win the first time trial of the Tour de France on Wednesday and defending champion Tadej Pogačar cemented his favorite status by grabbing the yellow jersey.

"I wouldn’t say my performance was disappointing, but I would have liked to have fresher legs in the final kilometer - I wish the race had finished under the fl

Belgian Remco Evenepoel lived up to his favourite's tag in the individual time trial by winning stage five of the Tour de France on Wednesday, with defending champion Tadej Pogacar's second place enough to take hold of the leader's yellow jersey.

The latest chapter of the long-running saga regarding Remco Evenepoel 's possible signing with Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe for 2026 has seen the CEO of his current team, Soudal-QuickStep flatly deny rumours of a possible buyout of his contract - only for fresh and considerably strengthened claims of the opposite to emerge a few hours later.

Remco Evenepoel is clearly the man to beat in stage five. The Olympic and world time trial champion was superb at the Dauphine where he took 20 seconds out of Jonas Vingegaard and was 48 seconds ahead of Tadej Pogacar. And with no Filippo Ganna or Stefan Bissegger after their stage one crashes it is hard to look beyond the big three.

Belgium's Remco Evenepoel has the yellow jersey in his sights as the leading contenders for the Tour de France are set to face their first major test of this year's race with a time trial around Caen in the fifth stage on Wednesday.

Remco Evenepoel won the stage five time trial at the Tour de France as Tadej Pogacar seized yellow and saw his rival Jonas Vingegaard lose more than a minute on the roads around Caen.

"I felt good today, I recovered well from yesterday's time trial and I was happy with my legs. I'm improving day by day. It's positive. At the end, you had to b