The big loser of the day is Remco Evenepoel. In today's mountain time trial, the Belgian risked losing his third place in the general classification, and his gap from Pogacar and Vingegaard is now truly significant.

The Belgian admitted to having a crisis and not feeling well, he couldn't explain what went wrong and simply said that today was one of the most difficult days of his career and that he had thought about stopping.

"I don't know what happened to me, probably I didn't have the legs. A really bad feeling, a truly terrible performance for me. The start was still quite good, but after 4-5 minutes of climbing, I already felt my legs were quite empty, so things were really going badly".

In Thursday's stage, Evenepoel hadn't performed well, but had managed to limit the damage: in the general classification, he had already started losing precious minutes compared to his rivals. The Belgian hoped that was his only crisis and certainly couldn't imagine that in the Peyragudes time trial the situation could worsen further. Now in the general classification, Vingegaard remains in second place with a gap of 4'07", while Remco has a delay of 7'24" and risks dropping from the third podium spot, because just 6 seconds behind is Lipowitz.

"No, at the moment I can't explain what happened to me, maybe in the next few days, but for now I really don't know what occurred to me".

Evenepoel's gaze was not just that of a man who had suffered an important defeat, but his look was incredulous, because he was unable to explain what happened in the 10 kilometers towards Peyragudes.

"I don't think this is the result of the stress caused by the Tour, I think I managed everything quite well, everything went smoothly until yesterday and in the end everything went well despite the time loss. But today was something I really didn't expect. I felt quite good in the morning, ready to try, and then this really poor performance arrived".

Evenepoel feels guilty because he couldn't achieve what he had set out to do, and his disappointment is not only for himself but also for the team that has supported him until today. "How do you manage a race when you know your legs aren't working? It's really a mental game to reach the finish line. I was really close to giving up at one point, but then I think that at the right moment from the team car they told me I had to continue, that the time lost compared to other guys was still quite limited, except for Jonas and Tadej, so I think this motivated me to keep going". Evenepoel today thought about stopping and was about to put his feet down. His disappointment is great, but he also knows he must regain confidence in himself because he must reach the goal he set before the start: making the Paris podium. "I'm still very disappointed with my performance today, especially when you see Jonas passing in front of me. It's mentally difficult. I knew in the last two or three kilometers I was going very slowly, that there was a good chance Jonas would overtake me and then it happened in the steepest part of the climb, but in the end I was quite prepared for that too. I just hope to feel better tomorrow. That's the only thing I can hope for".