While he sadly lost teammate Florian Lipowitz to a crash, Remco Evenepoel put in a strong performance in Stage 16 of the 2026 Tour de France, besting race leader Tadej Pogacar by 28 seconds.
It’s July 21, and we are starting up the final week of the 2026 Tour with an individual time trial from Évian-les-Bains to Thonon-les-Bain. In 1926, Évian-les-Bains became the first provincial town to be chosen to host the Grand Départ, although it wasn’t known as that then. During that period, the spa town welcomed the Tour for 12 consecutive editions. Still in the 20th century, the riders returned to Évian in 1979 for the start of a 55km time trial to Avoriaz, where the winner Bernard Hinault seized the Yellow Jersey from Joop Zoetemelk.
The route presents a mix of climbing and then motoring on the flat, with the initial ascent of Côte de Larringes making for most of the 500m elevation gain. The first rider will set off at 13:00 and Tadej Pogacar was set to start at 17:15.
Last in the overall standings (166th), Kamil Gradek will be the first rider to start today’s individual time trial, at 13:00. He will be followed by Lewis Askey at 13:01:30, then Cees Bol at 13:03, Matîs Louvel at 13:04:30, and so on with new starts every minute and a half until the top 15 riders overall, who will start every two minutes.
Tadej Pogacar (UAE Emirates XRG) enters the final week with the Maillot Jaune on his back and significant gaps in the overall standings. The winner on Sunday, while Jonas Vingegaard (Visma-Lease a Bike) abandoned, Remco Evenepoel (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) is now the Slovenian’s first chaser, with a gap of exactly five minutes. Isaac del Toro (UAE Emirates XRG) is back on the overall podium (+5’58”) but the gaps behind him are very small. Paul Seixas (Decathlon CMA CGM), Florian Lipowitz (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe) and Juan Ayuso (Lidl-Trek) are within a minute and a half of the Mexican rider.
Low in the overall General Classification, former European TT champion Josh Tarling is the 18th rider to roll down the start ramp. Tarling is an absolute expert of the time trial, notably becoming Great Britain’s youngest champion at the age of 19 in 2023, before repeating the feat the following year. In addition to these two national titles, Tarling was also European champion (2023) and a two-time winner of the Chrono des Nations (2023, 2025) . All of his professional victories have been achieved in time trials.
Wioth an average speed of 45.59 km/h, Josh Tarling (Netcompany Ineos) was 3’19” faster than Milan Fretin (Cofidis) and absolutely sets the benchmark for the rest of the peloton.
Filipo Ganna powered to the best time at the summit: 17’43”. That was two seconds faster than Artz and seven seconds faster than Tarling, but he slowed at the end and finished 5″ back from Tarling.
The next rider to catch notice was French TT specialist Thibault Guernalec, besting Ganna’s time at the summit. The French TT specialist was in third position after 4.8 km, 16 seconds behind Hoole, but at the summit he was in the lead at km 9.7, 0.16 second ahead of Ganna. Still, he seems to have faded at the end, coming in nearly 45 seconds back from Tarling.
Next up was Bruno Amarail. While notching third position at the first checkpoint, the French rouleur hit the summit at km 9.7 with a time of 17’24”. That’s 19 seconds faster than Ganna, and 27 seconds faster than Tarling. At km 18.1, he still led Tarling by 14 seconds.
And he did it! Amarail set the new mark to beat at 34’15”. That was six seconds faster than Tarling, and eleven seconds faster than Ganna.
Italian TT specialist Mattia Cattaneo was the next to power to the fastest time. He’s the first to complete the course with an average speed of more than 46 km/h (46.03). With his time of 34’01”, he came in 13 seconds ahead of Armirail.
The TT national champions continue to set strong times. Next on was Spanish champ Castrillo, impressing at km 9.7 with a time of 17’06”, 7 seconds ahead of Grossschartner and 8 seconds ahead of Cattaneo. Nonetheless, he fades a little later on the course and comes in 4th (so far).
From this point on, it’s the GC leaders that are getting ready to head out on the course.
Lipowitz, Pidcock, Del Toro and Seixas have all made their start now.
Skjelmose was flying. The Dane reached the first checkpoint (km 4.8) with a time of 8’30”, 15 seconds ahead of Pidcock!
And last but not least, Pogacar.
Del Toro briefly had the best time at the first checkpoint, but then Evenepoel came through and bested it.
Pogacar was not able to beat Evenepoel’s time at the first checkpoint! Remco is flying, now a full minute faster than Skjelmose!
Skjelmose makes it to the finish with the best time so far: 33’23”, 38 seconds ahead of Cattaneo!
Pogacar crossed the second checkpoint 16 seconds back from Evenepoel.
And Evenepoel crushes it! He bests Skjlemose’s time by over a minute, setting the time to beat at 32’19”.
After losing time over the course and a bobble in one of the corners, Pogacar comes in 28 seconds behind Evenepoel, but he still leads comfortably in the overall.
The win is Evenepoel’s second stage victory of this year’s race and comes in his debut Tour de France with Red Bull – BORA – hansgrohe. The result also strengthens Evenepoel’s position in the general classification, with the Alpine stages still to come as the next test for the overall contenders.
“It feels amazing to be in such good shape in the Tour,” Evenepoel told reporters after the stage. “It’s been a while since I’ve been on this level again, so to take two victories in a row is unbelievable.” He added: “I was feeling really good today. There was a lot of work behind the scenes, and to win this TT with such a performance, I’m just proud and happy.”
2026 Tour de France: Stage 16 Brief Results
- Remco Evenepoel (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe)
- Tadej Pogacar (UAE Emirates XRG), 28”
- Mattias Skjelmose (Lidl-Trek), +1’04”
- Paul Seixas (Decathlon CMA CGM), +1’16”
- Isaac Del Toro (UAE Emirates XRG), +1’21”
Race leader Pogačar clocked in a searing time to take second place on the day. The results ensures Pogacar’s leads in the general classification.
Speaking after the finish, Pogačar noted his disappointment at missing out on the stage win, but praised the performance of the day’s winner, Evenepoel.
Pogačar: “I was a bit disappointed that at the top of the climb, I was around 15 seconds behind Remco, and then I thought, ‘ok, I do not risk until the finish.’ Then in one corner where Lipowitz crashed, in the recon there were some cars from the organisation so I didn’t see that corner like I wanted. I almost crashed also, so I hope Lipowitz is ok and he will recover quickly. It is sad again to see one more GC contender out.
“Obviously, I wanted to go for the win, but Remco is world champion, Olympic champion, European champion, all in the TT, and chapeau to him. He rode a brilliant ride. [This Tour] is not over, it is not over yet, and we have quite the week ahead of us. The gap is good, but you never know what can happen. Let’s go with confidence and morale into the weekend.”
2026 Tour de France: General Classification After Stage 16
- Tadej Pogacar (UAE Emirates XRG)
- Remco Evenepoel (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe), +4’32”
- Isaac del Toro (UAE Emirates XRG), +6’51”
- Paul Seixas (Decathlon CMA CGM), +7’11”
- Juan Ayuso (Lidl-Trek), +9’22”
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