July 4, the seventh race day of the Tour de France brought the first ITT stage.
Today's race started in Nuits-Saint-Georges, with the finish located in Gevrey-Chambertin, the largest wine village in Burgundy's Côte de Nuits region.
The route was only 25.3 km long.
Yet it featured three time checkpoints, providing riders with real-time data references during the race.
They were located at 8.4 km, 14.4 km, and 19.9 km into the stage.
The entire route was mostly flat, but it was not completely level.
At the 11.5 km mark, there was a short climb measuring 1.6 km long with an average gradient of 6.5%.
Apart from that climb, the terrain before and after it was all purely flat.
For an individual time trial stage, veteran fans all knew that the riders most affected by the results would undoubtedly be the general classification contenders.
After all, there were no teammates to help in a time trial. It came down entirely to each rider's individual strength.
As of the end of Stage 6, the riders currently ranked in the top ten of the general classification were undoubtedly the team leaders or elite lieutenants of their respective squads.
The standings were as follows:
1. Huang Chong, 26:47:11 2. Pogačar, +0:08 3. Vingegaard, +0:10 4. Evenepoel, +1:02 5. Ayuso, +1:27 6. Primož Roglič, +1:29 7. C. Rodríguez, +1:31 8. Landa, +1:47 9. João Almeida, +1:47 10. Ciccone, +3:20
This leaderboard alone showed that UAE Team Emirates' strength was no empty boast.
They had two lieutenants in the top ten. That level of support gave Pogačar an enormous advantage.
Besides UAE Team Emirates, Red Bull–Bora–Hansgrohe and the Quick-Step team had also performed well this year, with two riders each making the top ten.
Meanwhile, last year's defending champions, Visma–Lease a Bike, had only Vingegaard