Jumbo Visma's teammate Wout Van Aert was so thrilled that he respectfully took off his hat when Jonas Vingegaard rode across the finish line in spectacular fashion to win the time trial on stage 16 of the Tour de France.

Van Aert, seeking his 10th career Tour de France victory, could have been Belgium's national time trial champion in Tuesday's 22km hilly race.

But he had to settle for third place, nearly three minutes from the Vinge goal and 1:23 behind rival Tadey Pogachar (UAE Team Emirates). Juan Art joked to the press: "I am the best of the ordinary."

On a day when Vingegaard took a big step toward yellow, Van Art was more than happy to take a step forward for the team.

"I finally got a stage win for the team," Van Aert told reporters. 'His time was unbelievable, crazy. [The fact that the time trial was hard also suited him. Not switching bikes was also a good tactic.

The complexity of the technical and challenging time trial course, with its multiple sectors, was evident in Van Aert's own stage experience, as he vacillated between setting the best time ahead of Remi Cavagna (Sourdal-Quickstep) and stalling in the finale.

Cavagna clocked 35:42 and Van Aert was one second slower than the Frenchman at the first checkpoint at 7.1 km. But on the flat terrain of the Salanche, which extends to the foot of the Côte de Mancy, Van Aert was 20 seconds behind a TT specialist like Cavagna.

However, their fortunes were reversed again on this climb, with Van Aert two seconds faster at the summit. Van Aert then powered through the rest of the climb to the finish, and at the summit he was 15 seconds ahead of the Frenchman.

Ultimately, however, his efforts were not enough to win a stage of the Tour de France.

"Throughout the entire Tour, I found these two to be so much better than the rest.

However, Van Aat was quite wary of being overconfident, even though the tide seemed to be coming in Vingegaard's favor.

"It's true that he won the Tour last year, but a few years ago he lost on the last day. In any case, the next few days are very important."