Jonas Vingegaard minimized the effects of his crash at Ituria-Basque in the 2024 Tour de France, showing excellent form in just six weeks of training and closing the gap to UAE Team Emirates' Tadei Pogachar to just 50 seconds.

On Thursday, Vingegaard and his Vimalise a Bike team made the flat stage to Dijon effortlessly and found themselves on the right side of the split formed by a brief crosswind. Christophe Laporte and Matteo Jorgenson escorted him to the finish, and Wout Van Aert was ready to sprint for the sixth stage.

It was a relatively easy day for Vingegaard. However, Friday's 25.3-km individual time trial through the Côte d'Or Burgundy region will be the race of truth.

There is no peloton for Dane to hide in, no teammates to protect him. It will be Vingegaard against the clock against race leader Pogachar, time trial world champion Remco Evenpole (Soudal-Quick Step), Primoš Roglic (Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe), and the other GC contenders.

All of Vingegaard's rivals had previewed the time trial course before the race, but he did not have time to travel to Côte d'Or to see the route due to a fall that resulted in weeks of hospitalization and rehabilitation.

Vingegaard may drive up Thursday evening to scout the route, or he may wait to ride until Friday morning when the course is closed.

"We haven't seen the time trial course yet. After stage 6, Vingegaard told Cycling Weekly, "I should have gone to scout, but I fell and couldn't go."

"It's a little hilly, not very technical, but I think it will be a pretty fast time trial.

Vingegaard will start at 16:56 local time, four minutes behind Roglic. Behind Vingegaard will be Evenpoel, followed by Pogachar. It is unclear how well Vingegaard has been able to train on a time trial bike after suffering a punctured lung and broken ribs in Iturria Basque in early April.

In 2023, Vingegaard put in a dominant performance in a 22.4 km time trial from Passy to Combrue in the Alpine hills, setting up his overall win. He was 1:38 ahead of Pogachar and 3 minutes ahead of the rest of the field.

This year, the time trial was reversed. Pogachar improved his time trial and equipment, winning the first time trial at the Giro d'Italia and narrowly losing the second time trial to Filippo Ganna.

On Friday, Vingegaard's ambitions of an overall ranking and a third Tour win could change dramatically.

"I think Taddei is always good in time trials. So I'm sure he and Lemko will do well," Vingegaard predicted.

"Lemko is probably the favorite. I just have to do my best and see what happens.

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