Tour de France 2023 Stage 16 recap: Jonas Vingegaard smashes Tadej Pogacar in emphatic TT win

"I was feeling great today – I think it was the best time trial I have ever done. I’m really proud with what I did today and I’m really proud about the victory. It’s my first time trial victory in the Tour de France."

Did he expect to do so well? "To be honest, no. I think today I even surprised myself with the time trial I did. I didn’t expect to do so well."

Is the Tour over? "No, there’s still a lot of hard stages to come. We have to keep fighting in these next stages and I’m looking forward to it."

It was a performance for the ages and one that may never be beaten in terms of its sheer brutality and excellent in comparison to all his rivals.

Well, not technically true because Vingegaard is still that head... but his advantage is pretty much insurmountable now, while Adam Yates joins his team-mate Pogacar on the podium.

1. Jonas Vingegaard
2. Tadej Pogacar +1'48
3. Adam Yates +8'52
4. Carlos Rodriguez +8'57
5. Jai Hindley +11'15
6. Sepp Kuss +12'56
7. Pello Bilbao +13'06
8. Simon Yates +13'46
9. David Gaudu +17'38
10. Felix Gall +18'19

To beat Wout van Aert by almost three minutes in a time trial is completely extra-terrestrial from Jonas Vingegaard. Even Pogacar smashed Van Aert and yet only came second. Wow.

1. Jonas Vingegaard 32'36"
2. Tadej Pogacar +1'38
3. Wout van Aert +2'51
4. Pello Bilbao +2'55
5. Simon Yates +2'58
6. Remi Cavagna +3'06
7. Adam Yates +3'12
8. Mattias Skjelmose +3'21
9. Mads Pedersen +3'31
10. David Gaudu 3'31

No sooner has Pogacar crossed the line just seconds behind Rodriguez than Jonas Vingegaard beasts home 1:41 faster than the man in white. That's a sensational ride for the man who will win a second Tour de France on Sunday. His team-mate Wout van Aert doffs his cap: Jumbo-Visma have their win, and it's not the Belgian but their man in yellow.

Which just goes to show you that today's ride from the Slovenian isn't bad - indeed, it could be enough for second place. It's just Jonas Vingegaard has been on a different planet.

He's 21 seconds down for fifth place, which is pretty solid. Let's see how that compares to Carlos Rodriguez, who we've seen very little of during this TT.

It's not inconceivable given he's now only 40 seconds behind him and therefore 1:20 to the better... A humiliation for the double winner today.

The Dane is a mammoth 1:05 clear of his big rival Tadej Pogacar with 3.9km to go after the Cote de Domancy. He could pick up a flat tyre and still beat him - and probably win the stage as well.

The Briton takes third for now at seven seconds with Pello Bilbao second at four seconds. Van Aert is still in the hot seat - but will surely lose the stage to his team-mate Vingegaard out there.

It's not looking good for the double champion, who is now 50 seconds slower than Vingegaard. Of course, some of that will be because of the change - but he hasn't found any uplift in that decision either.

This is really fascinating because we will be able to compare the two strategies. Pog will have the advantage for the climb, but not for the final 4km. Let's see.

At the 16.1km point before the second climb, the Dane is 31 seconds quicker than Pogacar and 51 clear of Cavagna. The positive news for Pogi, then, is that he only lost an additional second on that last section.

He has 19 seconds over everyone bar Vingegaard, who is still yet to come. He hasn't changed his bike yet but then makes the sign and the change is carried out. Will it make any difference? Will Vingegaard do the same? We'll know very soon.

Shortly after the halfway point, the Dane has half a minute on his big rival. So unless Pogacar is keeping it all back for the Cote de Domancy, then this could be the day the Tour slips through his fingers...

He lost time on the downhill and flat section but the Jayco-AlUla rider sets the third best time in the third check after the Cote de Domancy, three seconds down on Van Aert.

The official times for the first intermediate check at 7.1km:

1. Jonas Vingegaard
2. Tadej Pogacar +16
3. Stefan Kung +42
4. Simon Yates +44
5. Pello Bilbao +45

Now let's wait and see what their strategies are because Pogacar may choose to go harder later, or it could just be that Vingegaard is by far the best. Or has the Dane gone off too hard?

The Slovenian comes through the first check in 10.10 which is a whopping 26 seconds faster than Kung, who was the previous target time. Live times shows that Vingegaard is 18 seconds faster than Pogi, though... Let's wait until the official time for confirmation on that.

"Today you show the world who's the strongest," comes the radio message from the Jumbo-Visma car to Jonas Vingegaard.