Remco Evenepoel, Olympic and world champion in the time trial discipline, dominated the proceedings on the 17.4km course, winning 21 seconds ahead of Jonas Vingegaard, and 49 seconds ahead of Tadej Pogacar.
Evenepoel thus took over the yellow jersey in the 77th edition of the race, which will be decided in the last three stages in the Alps starting on Friday.
The win marked the 1,000th victory in the history of his Soudal Quick-Step team, which was founded in 2003 by Patrick Lefevere under the name Quick Step-Davitamon.
"I'm very proud to have done it, and I dedicate it to Patrick for everything he has done for this team," declared Evenepoel, wearing a specially made cap on his head. "My aim was to get to the split as quickly as possible and then set a good pace. We had a perfect strategy", added the Belgian, who won the Dauphiné time trial last year and now has 19 time trial victories to his name.
Of the three frontrunners, Pogacar made the worst impression. Even though the overall classification is far from decided, he is now in eighth place, 38 seconds behind Evenepoel, while Vingegaard is in 5th place 16 seconds behind.
"These are pretty big gaps for such a short time. I'm in much better shape than last year at this time. There will be a lot of pressure now, but this victory gives me confidence to try and defend the yellow jersey until Sunday evening", said Evenepoel.
