His biggest rivals in the time trial were still primarily Vingegaard and Pogačar, not even the number one ITT rider, Evenepoel.
After all, if he wanted to hold onto the Yellow Jersey, Vingegaard and Pogačar were the two with the smallest time gaps to him.
But Evenepoel, who started fourth from last, was unbelievably fast on the flats.
With every time check he passed, he gained a massive amount of time on Roglič.
Conversely, Vingegaard, who had utterly destroyed Pogačar in last year's ITT stage, was neck and neck with Roglič on time.
Aldag, following in the team car behind Huang Chong, kept a close eye on the data for Pogačar—who had started one spot ahead—and promptly reported the times:
"Huang, Remco is the fastest in terms of real-time speed right now.
After the first time check, Tadej is two seconds behind him.
Your speed right now is very close to Tadej's. Keep it up!!"
In a time trial stage, the team's role was basically to scream encouragement over the radio.
