The inseparables separated this time by two minutes at the Passy exit, with Mont Blanc and its storm clouds dominating the background, and 22.4 kilometers full of traps and heat. A time trial that was a gymkhana, the only one of this 2023 Tour made to order for the colossi. But this time there is no wheel that is worth it, only the references of the earpiece, so many times deceptions by the directors to spur the pupil. Jonas Vingegaard flew, the card he had hidden, a tremendous blow until his second Tour, some unthinkable differences with a disillusioned, defeated Tadej Pogacar, again with an 'impossible' mission ahead of him until Paris. It was the unexpected, a distance of 1:38 at the Combloux finish line, the scene of the Dane's massacre forever. [Narration and ratings]

The Tour stays back on track, the same story from a year ago. Very complicated for Pogacar, because it is not only the distance in the general classification (1:48), it is the moral blow, the confirmation of Vingegaard's 'plan', always serene despite the recent scratches, confident that the bonuses would not be what they decided. I had been repeating it, that one day someone would break through, and it was in the fight against the clock, the one that teaches the truths. The Dane dominated from start to finish, with a distance in crescendo. And he ended up celebrating at the finish line: it didn't take him long to even double his rival, whom he observed on the horizon.

Carlos Rodríguez, who sank in the final three kilometers, gave up his place on the podium for five seconds with Adam Yates, 24 seconds worse than him. Pello Bilbao, extraordinary, finished fourth.

Hinault's hill

It was going to be the Domancy hill where everything was going to be written, in those final six kilometers at 7%, especially on the intermediate wall from 2.5 to 9.4%, with points of 17% past Reservoir. On the Hinault hill, baptized like that since 1980, when the 'Sallanches massacre' in a World Cup that promoted it 20 times, torture, which took the Badger (Alberto Fernández made bronze) and only 15 of the 107 who finished they started.

Few jokes there, although Vingegaard was already 34 seconds behind his rival before starting. and many doubts. In the morning, Tadej and Jonas attended the umpteenth recognition. And the Slovenian tried to change his bike, to leave the goat right at the beginning and take his Colnago every day, two kilos less weight. I was going to repeat it later, the only one of all the best to do it. But it would be of little use to him, despite the urgency of the operation.

It was a question of lumbar strength, like that of the Badger 43 years ago, unique in that brutal exercise of pedaling while seated. A route that soon proved to be not for specialists, you just had to see the agony of Stefan Küng, from more to less despite the change of bike. But the jackpot was in Vingegaard's aerodynamic work, serious and concentrated at the start, risking a lot from the beginning, like a year ago in Carcassonne with the Tour won, braking only at the end to grant the whim of stage victory to his partner Van Aert.

In Domancy, despite ascending with a goat, Vingegaard endorsed Pogacar by 34 seconds, in less than three kilometers. In the final six, more than a minute in total. It's over. Also the Tour? Only a feat on Wednesday on the way to Courchevel, the queen stage or on Saturday with the finish in the Vosges, could already change a perfect script for the moment for the Jumbo Visma.