How much time each Tour GC man lost to Pogačar in stage 1 TT | Sticky Bottle

*Tadej Pogačar in action in Denmark; on his way to 3rd in a wet Copenhagen and already having put time into his rivals (Photo: Pauline Ballet)*

Tadej Pogačar may not have won the opening TT of the Tour de France in Denmark today, but already the reigning champion has put time into his rivals.

The UAE Team Emirates rider had to be content with 3rd on the stage - which was impacted by changeable wet/drying road conditions - with the victory and yellow jersey claimed by Yves Lampaert (Quick-Step Alpha Vinyl Team).

The 31-year-old former Belgian TT champion went around the 13.2km course in a time of 15:17, and in an average speed of 51.821km per hour despite the wet and technical route.

He was five seconds faster than one of the stage favourites, Wout van Aert (Jumbo Visma), with Pogačar then placing 3rd at seven seconds. Lampaert ended the stage a surprised and emotional winner and could hardly believe he had taken the Tour yellow jersey.

The favourite for the stage victory, Filippo Ganna (Ineos Grenadiers), could only manage 4th in the world champion's rainbow bands and shipped 10 seconds to the flying Lampaert.

In the general classification battle, Pogačar was best and put time into all of his rivals. Interestingly, it was Jonas Vingegaard (Jumbo-Visma) who got closest to the favourite for the final yellow jersey as he lost just 8 seconds to
Pogačar.

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Then followed Vingegaard's team mate and team co-leader, Primož Roglič, who finished just one place and one second behind his team mate; the two Jumbo Visma riders 7th and 8th today.

While there was very little to separate them, the result suggests Vingegaard is just as much - if not more - of a challenger for yellow on this Tour as Roglič, who is regarded as the better TT rider of the duo. It's clearly very early days yet but if Vingegaard can match Roglič against the clock he is very likely to be better on the climbs and may be the Jumbo Visma rider to take a real challenge to Pogačar.

Adam Yates (Ineos Grenadiers) was perhaps the surprise package of the opening TT today; placing 13th in a discipline he is not fond of and just after coming back from Covid-19. He lost 16 seconds to Pogačar.

Another of the Ineos Grenadiers men, and 2018 Tour winner, Geraint Thomas did a very solid ride; losing just 18 seconds to Pogačar despite accidentally leaving his gilet on for the TT. That very likely cost him the handful of seconds he would have needed to break into the top 10 on the day.

Aleksandr Vlasov, around whom Bora-hangrohe has built its team, has already lost 24 seconds to Pogačar, with last year's GC 4th place finisher, Ben O'Connor of AG2R Citroën Team, has lost 54 seconds and Jack Haig (Bahrain Victorious) has already conceded 44 seconds.

While most of the riders in the list below will harbour hopes of the final podium - or even the top 5 or 10 overall in Paris in three weeks - there are a small number of names in this list simply for interesting reference points.