TADEJ POGACAR dug deep to keep the overall Tour de France lead after Friday’s stage seven with Remco Evenepoel winning a thrilling 25.3km time trial through the Burgundy vineyards.
Meanwhile, Ireland’s Ben Healy finished ninth and is 29th in the general classification, while fellow countryman Sam Bennett was 170th and 151st overall, while he is 13th in the green jersey points classification.
It was a first Tour de France stage win for the 24-year-old Belgian time-trial world champion who finished 12sec ahead of Pogacar, who was second on the day.
Veteran Primoz Roglic was third at 34sec and two-time defending champion Jonas Vingegaard was fourth at 37sec.
The result leaves the so-called ‘Fab Four’ favourites in the top four positions after seven stages of the 21-day race.
The four all sped down the starting ramp at Nuits-Saint-Georges within 10 minutes of each other, making the finale a nail-biting edge-of-the-seat affair.
Time-keepers Tissot employed state-of-the-art cameras at three intermediate points along the route packed with fans as the fates swung one way then another.
Evenepoel was powering ahead to a wider margin of victory before his gears stuck, a problem he solved by bouncing hard on his seat, testimony to his cool despite this being his first Grand Boucle.
At the raucous finish line, fans pounded on the barriers and cheered as the see-saw struggle between the pretenders panned out well for all four of them.
Evenepoel has now beaten Pogacar in all six time trials in which they have gone head-to-head.
Dane Vingegaard had beaten Pogacar in the last two time trials they faced off but dropped time on the Slovenian on Friday.
