Remco Evenepoel overcame a late time trial to win the seventh stage of the Tour de France, reducing the gap on yellow jersey rider Tadej Pogacar as the top two riders secured time on their rivals.

Evenepoel took his first Tour de France stage win on his debut in the race on his favourite terrain, with the world time trial champion having enough in his tank to win by 12 seconds despite thinking he had a puncture in the final three kilometres as he approached Gevrey-Chambertin.

Evenepoel signalled to his team car for help and then banged his rear wheel to check the air pressure, which helped him calm down and regain his rhythm, before closing the gap to 33 seconds over the 25.3km course, which included a gentle climb halfway through.

With his stage win, Evenepoel, who wears the white jersey of the best young rider in this Tour, now has stage wins in all three Grand Tours at the age of 24.

“It’s crazy,” said the Belgian. “I had a good day. The climb was quite difficult. I wanted to start fast and I had to save something for the climb, so it wasn’t easy. Then the descent, when you’re at your limits, was quite technical and fast.

“But I enjoyed every metre of that time trial and winning was just amazing.”

Evenepoel was no doubt fuelled by the extra adrenaline, fearing that a last-minute puncture would end his hopes of victory.

“I was pretty sure I had a flat tire,” he said. “I think someone dropped a glass or something, it was exactly the same sound as a flat tire, so I was a little scared. After a few hundred meters I knew it was okay, but I had to keep going with a little bit of (worry) in my head in case of a slow flat tire.”

“I wasn’t sure even on the last corner, but I had to take the risk, even though I knew Tadej was quite close to me…

“Tadej will probably be out of reach, but that’s racing. You never know what’s going to happen. I think the more we’re in the race, the better I feel. I’ll focus more on the podium, but we just have to keep going. I’ve got the legs for it. We just have to keep going.”

The top two riders moved even further away from Primoz Roglic and defending champion Jonas Vingegaard, who finished third and fourth respectively.

Vingegaard kept pace with Roglic during the first two time checks out of Nuits-Saint-Georges but lost pace towards the end of the race.

Roglic finished 34 seconds behind Evenepoel, with Vingegaard three seconds behind. Still, it was a good result for the Dane, who had few opportunities to use his time trial bike and compete in the Tour after a horrific crash in the Basque Country in April.

Vingegaard is in third, 75 seconds behind the yellow, with Roglic a further 21 seconds behind, although the Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe rider remains optimistic.

“I did everything I could, so I’m really happy with the performance I put in,” Roglic said. “I can be optimistic and look to the future.”

Pogacar had no reservations about being beaten by the world time trial champion.

“Losing to Remco, the world champion and the best time trial rider in the world right now, is a good result in my opinion and I can be happy,” he said.

“I would definitely like to win a stage, but it’s quite difficult with Remco. I gained time on Primoz, Jonas and other guys, so I can be happy. I have to keep an eye on Remco, he’s a bit closer, but Jonas and Primoz can show good legs in the mountains.”