Tour de Francia 2026: prueba contrarreloj castigadora de etapa 16 en las orillas del lago Ginebra

That's it from me for the day. Jeremy Whittle's report will be up later, so look out for that. Tomorrow Niall McVeigh is on Tour blogging duty and I'll be back for stage 18 on Thursday. Thanks all for following along.

Evenepoel moves into the top ten with the stage win, while Del Toro and Pogacar also climb:

1. Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek) 417
2. Jasper Philipsen (Alpecin-Premier Tech) 386
3. Biniam Girmay (NSN) 361
4. Max Kanter (XDS Astana) 271
5. Olav Kooij (Decathlon) 210
6. Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates) 161
7. Søren Wærenskjold (Uno-X Mobility) 159
8. Anthony Turgis (TotalEnergies) 129
9. Isaac Del Toro (UAE Team Emirates) 123
10. Remco Evenepoel (Red Bull Bora-Hansgrohe) 121

Pogacar bagged three mountains points for being second quickest on the climb to extend his lead in the polkadot points race:

1. Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates) 67
2. Valentin Paret-Peintre (Soudal Quick-Step) 45
3. Richard Carapaz (EF Education-EasyPost) 39
4. Paul Seixas (Decathlon) 34
5. Remco Evenepoel (Red Bull Bora-Hansgrohe) 31
6. Isaac Del Toro (UAE Team Emirates) 30
7. Lenny Martinez (Bahrain Victorious) 22
8. Tom Pidcock (Pinarello-Q36.5) 20
9. Nicolas Prodhomme (Decathlon) 17
10. Alex Baudin (EF Education-EasyPost) 16

It appears there were no bonus seconds for the winner of stage 16, Evenepoel's latest GC ranking shows just the time gap earned on the road:

1. Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates) 56hrs 14mins 18secs
2. Remco Evenepoel (Red Bull Bora-Hansgrohe): +4mins 32secs
3. Isaac Del Toro (UAE Team Emirates): +6mins 51secs
4. Paul Seixas (Decathlon): +7mins 11secs
5. Juan Ayuso (Lidl-Trek): +9mins 22secs
6. Mattias Skjelmose (Lidl-Trek): +10mins 14secs
7. Lenny Martinez (Bahrain Victorious): +12mins 50secs
8. Tom Pidcock (Pinarello-Q36.5): +12mins 58secs
9. Jordan Jegat (TotalEnergies): +22mins 50secs
10. Yannis Voisard (Tudor Pro Cycling Team): +24mins 18secs

Confirmation of Evenepoel's stage win:

1. Remco Evenepoel (Red Bull Bora-Hansgrohe) 32mins 19secs
2. Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates): +28secs
3. Mattias Skjelmose (Lidl-Trek): +1min 04secs
4. Paul Seixas (Decathlon): +1min 16secs
5. Isaac Del Toro (UAE Team Emirates): +1min 21secs
6. Mattia Cattaneo (Red Bull Bora-Hansgrohe): +1min 42secs
7. Thymen Arensman (Netcompany Ineos): +1min 47secs
8. Bruno Armirail (Visma-Lease a Bike): +1min 55secs
9. Pablo Castrillo (Movistar): +2mins 00secs
10. Joshua Tarling (Netcompany Ineos): +2mins 02secs

Elsewhere, Pidcock, who finished 12th on the stage, is up to eighth and less than ten seconds behind Lenny Martinez in seventh. Of the non-GC competition, Tarling's early time was good enough for tenth on the stage, Cattaneo sixth and Arensman seventh.

Pogacar is 28 seconds slower than Evenepoel! That means the Belgian wins back-to-back stages and nearly half a minute into the yellow jersey lead.

Evenepoel sets the new fastest time, 1min 4secs ahead of Skjelmose. The stage win is surely his on the Belgian national day.

Del Toro finishes five seconds down on Seixas.

Seixas comes through second quickest so far, 12 seconds slower than Skjelmose. He'll be eyeing Del Toro's time now.

Pogacar has a wobble into the same corner Lipowitz went down. He'll cough up a few seconds to Evenepoel there.

Evenepoel is 16 seconds quicker than Pogacar through the third time check. Seixas is now going quicker on the road than Del Toro.

He's being put into an ambulance, hopefully a speedy recovery.

The Lidl-Trek rider moves into the lead with a time of 33mins 23secs.

Oh no! Lipowitz was going well but his wheel slid out on a bend. He was just behind Skjelmose on the road. He's come down hard on his shoulder and maye even caught his head on the kerb. His race could be over.

Pidcock has come across the line just 25secs down on Cattaneo, that's a great time. He made up decent time in the final section

All of these times are starting to look insignificant with Evenepoel on the road. He reached the second time check 56 quicker than Skjelmose and 14 seconds quicker than Pogacar. It's Evenepoel's to lose at this point.

Oh dear, Pidcock actually lost a bit of ground there. He was through checkpoint three fifth quickest. Skjelmose the quickest at this stage.

Pidock's time at the next checkpoint will be interesting, it comes after a significant descent, a discipline he excels at.

Juan Ayuso is losing significant time here. He started the day sixth and with a lead of more than two minutes on his Lidl-Trek teammate Skjelmose, that's been nearly halved already.

Pogacar is slower than Evenepoel through the first checkpoint, he trails by seven seconds.

Evenepoel showing them how it's done. He's quickest through the first time check by 21 seconds. Will Pogacar respond?

Skjelmose is the new fastest man up climb, Pidcock was the wrong side of Castrillo's time but not by much.

Del Toro has posted a new quickest time through checkpoint one, a couple of seconds quicker than Skjelmose and, crucially, three quicker than Seixas.

Given the riders out on the road and some of the times posted earlier by the specialists everything points to a straight battle between Evenepoel and Pogacar for the stage.

With Evenepoel on the road, that means one thing: Pogacar is next.

Time trial world champion Evenepoel is underway. He's in the rainbow jersey and looks like he wants this. Expect him to the hit the first checkpoint in just over eight minutes time.

Skjelmose goes quickest through the first checkpoint, 15 seconds faster Pidcock.

Huge roar as Paul Seixas hits the road. He trails Isaac del Toro by 25 seconds, can he overhaul the Mexican?

Pidcock is on the road and through the first checkpoint in the quickest time we've seen so far. Mattias Skjelmose is also going well, the live tracker also has him up on the leader but he's not past the first checkpoint yet. Jeget is well down.

Wow, Arensman finishes 4.97secs slower than Cattaneo. The Dutchman would be the leader if he got out of the start gate on time.

All eyes on Arenman. He still trails Cattaneo with less than a kilometre to go…

Jordan Jeget is off the ramp. His departure marks the start of the GC top ten. Pidcock next.

Now then, Arensman is just a second off Cattaneo's time through the third checkpoint. If whatever caused his delay at the start costs him the stage he will be devastated. TNT are saying that start cost him as much as ten seconds.

By the way, polkadot chaser Paret-Peintre is well outside the points. His time is currently 12th quickest on the climb. Castrillo, Felix Grossschartner, Cattaneo and Arensman are the four men currently taking points in the mountains classification. That will change though, we're less than ten minutes from the GC top getting out on the course.

Movistar's Pablo Castrillo has gone through the second checkpoint quicker than Cattaneo, he's the Spanish time trial champion so he could challenge the leader.

Unfortunate moment for Thymen Arensman, it looked like he got into the start gate late and wanted to ride straight through but wasn't allowed. He rolled off the ramp shaking his head. His time will be taken from when he was due to start, so that could prove costly.

The Italian actually stretched out his lead on the final kilometre and ended up with a 13-second advantage over Armirail. He averaged 46km/h across the course but really excelled on the flat section at the end.

We could have a new leader here, Mattia Cattaneo (Red Bull Bora-Hansgrohe) is on a heater. He's gone through the 1km to go marker with a nine second advantage on Armirail. Can he hold it?

There are five points on offer in the polkadot race today for the rider that posts the quickest time up the Côte de Larringes. Pogacar is the current leader in the mountains classification but Valentin Paret-Peintre (Soudal-Quick-Step) is wearing the jersey (skinsuit today) because the race leader can't wear both. The Frenchman will be emptying the tank up the climb, not worrying too much about his overall time, and hoping the GC leaders try to pace themselves a bit more evenly later on. Paret-Peintre has about 4km to go on the climb. One to keep an eye on.

We are counting down to the GC leaders rolling off the start ramp, here are the scheduled start times for the top ten:

• Jordan Jegat (TotalEnergies) at 15.57 BST (16.57 CEST)

• Tom Pidcock (Pinarello–Q36.5) at 15.59 BST (16.59 CEST)

• Lenny Martinez (Bahrain Victorious) at 16.01 BST (17.01 CEST)

• Mattias Skjelmose (Lidl-Trek) at 16.03 BST (17.03 CEST)

• Juan Ayuso (Lidl-Trek) at 16.05 BST (17.05 CEST)

• Florian Lipowitz (Red Bull Bora–Hansgrohe) at 16.07 BST (17.07 CEST)

• Paul Seixas (Decathlon) at 16.09 BST (17.09 CEST)

• Isaac Del Toro (UAE Emirates-XRG) at 16.11 BST (17.11 CEST)

• Remco Evenepoel (Red Bull Bora–Hansgrohe) at 16.13 BST (17.13 CEST)

• Tadej Pogacar (UAE Emirates-XRG) at 16.15 BST (17.15 CEST)

The Frenchman comes over the line with his mouth agape and despite losing significant time to Tarling on the flat, the Visma Lease-a-Bike rider finishes six seconds quicker than the man in the hotseat.

Pedersen has finished with a time of 37min 31secs, that's more than three minutes slower than Tarling.

Bruno Armirail (Visma Lease-a-Bike) has just gone through the time check at the top of the Côte de Larringes 19 seconds quicker than Tarling's time. He's flying down the descent too. The question will be whether he can match Tarling's power on the flatter section in the run to the finish. This is impressive stuff from Armirail, he has 11.5km to go.

Mads Pedersen, the man in the green jersey, is out on the course. He's currently on the uphill has about 22.5km to go. The Dane is not a TT specialist and already trails Tarling's time by 50secs. In fact, no one out on the course is within 40secs of the current stage leader.

The first rider rolled off the start ramp at noon and Josh Tarling of Netcompany-Ineos has set the quickest time so far, clocking 34mins 21secs. The Welshman's teammate Filippo Ganna has just come across the line and could not quite overhaul Tarling, finishing four seconds off the pace. Huub Artz (Lotto-Intermarche) is currently the third on the podium.

Stage 16, Tuesday 21 July: Évian-les-Bains to Thonon-les-Bains (individual time trial), 26.1km

Time trials, remember those? Thirty years ago, with Miguel Induráin in his prime, a Tour might include three contre la montres totalling over 100km. Recently, they have been chopped to sex up the race, so this one lasts just over half an hour. With a second-category climb plus descent, it favours the select group going for the overall, led by the multiple world champion Evenepoel. It will come down to seconds, with the only drama if someone has a bad day as Vingegaard did last year in Rouen. Is this progress? Answers on a carte postale please.

Read the full stage-by-stage guide to this year's race:

Two in a row for Remco Evenepoel? The Belgian is favourite for the only inidivudal time trial of this year's Tour on a 26.1km course that is uphill from the gate in Évian-les-Bains and features the categort two Côte de Larringes, a 9.7km climb at 4.3%, before a tricky descent towards the Lake Geneva shoreline in Thonon-les-Bains.

The sad withdrawal of Jonas Vingegaard, tinged with controversy after the Dane crashed out the day after his sleep was interrupted at 2am by doping control, confirmed what we already knew about this year's Tour: Tadej Pogacar is unassailable. Evenepoel may shave a few seconds off Pogacar's five-minute lead here should he bag another grand tour time trial victory but it is not outside of the range of possibilities that Pogacar shows off his all-around talents by powering away to take this one either. The Netcompany-Ineos pair of Filippo Ganna and Josh Tarling are in with a shout, while Juan Ayuso (Lidl-Trek) is an outside bet.

The real interest in the remaining stages of the Tour will be on the battle for podium and the tug of war over the young rider's jersey between Isaac del Toro and Paul Seixas. Seixas is the stronger rider against clock, but after two weeks in the saddle who knows what impact that will have.