Evenepoel, the reigning time trial Olympic and world champion, was expected to win the stage in the absence of time trial specialists — Filippo Ganna and Stefan Bissegger, who both crashed and exited the race on the first day of the Tour last week.

Reigning Olympic time trial champion Remco Evenepoel should be a major factor in Caen as Tadej Pogacar, Mathieu van der Poel battle for overall lead.

Olympic and world time trial champion Remco Evenepoel (Soudal-QuickStep) duly delivered on his stage favourite status on stage 5 of the Tour de France, powering to victory in the 33km time trial in Caen as Tadej Pogačar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) took yellow.