On Friday, the Tour de France's seventh stage time trial came to a close. The GC composition that many had anticipated before the grand tour of Tuscany kicked off the three-week journey to Nice became even clearer on this stage.

The 25.3km time attack, set against the backdrop of Burgundy's vineyards, featured yellow jersey Tadej Pogachar, time trial world champion Remco Evenpole, defending champion Jonas Vingegaard, and 2020 runner-up The big four of the Tour de France starred in the race: Primoš Roglic, the 2020 runner-up.

Evenpoel won stage 7, as most might have expected before his 30-minute blast south of Dijon, but the top overall standings are as above, as they were Thursday night.

Vingegaard, the winner of the last two Tour de France and who has beaten Pogachar in the last two time trials, may have beaten his great rival by as much as 22 seconds this summer. Still, Pogachar said afterward that he was happy with his run. [Honestly, I think it was a good time trial for me. I'm happy with my performance, and the fact that I was only 37 seconds behind Lemko in a time trial where I'm a good match for him is pretty good for me."

Dane has spent much of the season recovering from a number of injuries sustained in a major crash at Iturria-Basque in April, and his form, and his ability to immediately return to this high level of racing, was in question before the Tour.

Indeed, before the race began in Florence, he stood at the start line and said, "Everything from here on is a bonus."

He is now in great form and, with the exception of losing 50 seconds to Pogachar in the high mountains of the Col du Galibier on stage 4, everything is going according to plan.

"I wouldn't say it was a big loss, but rather the opposite, I thought I would lose more time," Vingegaard said of stage 7, "It's a much more favorable time trial [for Pogachar]. It's a favorable time trial for Pogachar. Last year he took seven and a half minutes in two stages, so he is strong.

Vingegaard was third at the three intermediate checkpoints in the middle of the stage, at the base of the hill, on the summit, and on the descent, and reached the third checkpoint at 19.5km, 22 seconds ahead of Pogachar and another 3 seconds ahead of Evenpole.

He caught up to Roglic by 4 seconds, but fell slightly behind on the flat, straight last run, further reducing his time. He finished 25 seconds behind Pogachar and 4 seconds behind Roglic.

"I felt good on the climbs," Vingegaard said. "I felt really good, especially in the first part of the time trial. I felt really good, especially in the first part of the time trial. I died a little bit before the end, but I think I had good power, so I can be satisfied." [As I said before the start, everything is a bonus. Of course I have ambitions and I want to get a good result. But whatever happens, what happened happened and I can't change it."

The day's time loss would be minor in the grand scheme of things, given the recent Tour, but Vingegaard said it was not the day he was most worried about before starting the race. The same was true of Galibier's day.

"I think St. Luca was probably the day I worried about the most. I didn't lose any time there."

"Today I only lost 25 seconds on a course that suited Lemko and Taddeji better than me. So it was a good day for me to lose only 25 seconds"

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The final question posed to Vingegaard was to find out how he felt about his performance as the race progressed.

"As the stages progress, I'm getting completely used to the swing of the race after a long rest," his answer was short and clear.

"Yes, I am. "

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